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8. Interactive Merging with sdiff

With sdiff, you can merge two files interactively based on a side-by-side `-y' format comparison (see section Showing Differences Side by Side). Use `-o file' or `--output=file' to specify where to put the merged text. See section Invoking sdiff, for more details on the options to sdiff.


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8.1 Specifying diff Options to sdiff

The following sdiff options have the same meaning as for diff. See section Options to diff, for the use of these options.

 
-a -b -d -i -t -v
-B -I regexp

--ignore-blank-lines  --ignore-case
--ignore-matching-lines=regexp  --ignore-space-change
--left-column  --minimal  --speed-large-files
--suppress-common-lines  --expand-tabs
--text  --version  --width=columns

For historical reasons, sdiff has alternate names for some options. The `-l' option is equivalent to the `--left-column' option, and similarly `-s' is equivalent to `--suppress-common-lines'. The meaning of the sdiff `-w' and `-W' options is interchanged from that of diff: with sdiff, `-w columns' is equivalent to `--width=columns', and `-W' is equivalent to `--ignore-all-space'. sdiff without the `-o' option is equivalent to diff with the `-y' or `--side-by-side' option (see section Showing Differences Side by Side).


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8.2 Merge Commands

Groups of common lines, with a blank gutter, are copied from the first file to the output. After each group of differing lines, sdiff prompts with `%' and pauses, waiting for one of the following commands. Follow each command with RET.

`e'

Discard both versions. Invoke a text editor on an empty temporary file, then copy the resulting file to the output.

`eb'

Concatenate the two versions, edit the result in a temporary file, then copy the edited result to the output.

`el'

Edit a copy of the left version, then copy the result to the output.

`er'

Edit a copy of the right version, then copy the result to the output.

`l'

Copy the left version to the output.

`q'

Quit.

`r'

Copy the right version to the output.

`s'

Silently copy common lines.

`v'

Verbosely copy common lines. This is the default.

The text editor invoked is specified by the EDITOR environment variable if it is set. The default is system-dependent.


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