Man page - zdiff(1)

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Manual

ZDIFF

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
REPORTING BUGS
COPYRIGHT
SEE ALSO

NAME

zdiff - decompress and compare two files line by line

SYNOPSIS

zdiff [ options ] file1 [ file2 ]

DESCRIPTION

zdiff compares two files and, if they differ, writes to standard output the differences line by line. A hyphen ’-’ used as a file argument means standard input. If any file given is compressed, its decompressed content is used. zdiff is a front end to the program diff and has the limitation that messages from diff refer to temporary file names instead of those specified.

’zdiff -v -V ’ prints the version of the diff program used.

The formats supported are bzip2, gzip, lzip, xz, and zstd.

zdiff compares file1 to file2. The standard input is used only if file1 or file2 refers to standard input. If file2 is omitted zdiff tries to compare file1 with the corresponding uncompressed file (if file1 is compressed), and then with the corresponding compressed files of the remaining formats until one is found.

Exit status is 0 if inputs are identical, 1 if different, 2 if trouble. Some options only work if the diff program used supports them.

OPTIONS

-h , --help

display this help and exit

-V , --version

output version information and exit

-a , --text

treat all files as text

-b , --ignore-space-change

ignore changes in the amount of white space

-B , --ignore-blank-lines

ignore changes whose lines are all blank

-c

use the context output format

-C , --context= <n>

same as -c but use <n> lines of context

-d , --minimal

try hard to find a smaller set of changes

-E , --ignore-tab-expansion

ignore changes due to tab expansion

-i , --ignore-case

ignore case differences

-M , --format= <list>

process only the formats in <list>

-N , --no-rcfile

don’t read runtime configuration file

-O , --force-format = [ <f1>][,<f2>]

force one or both input formats

-p , --show-c-function

show which C function each change is in

-q , --brief

output only whether files differ

-s , --report-identical-files

report when two files are identical

-t , --expand-tabs

expand tabs to spaces in output

-T , --initial-tab

make tabs line up by prepending a tab

-u

use the unified output format

-U , --unified= <n>

same as -u but use <n> lines of context

-v , --verbose

verbose mode (for --version )

-w , --ignore-all-space

ignore all white space

-W , --width= <n>

output at most <n> print columns (for -y )

-y , --side-by-side

output in two columns

--bz2= <command>

set compressor and options for bzip2 format

--gz= <command>

set compressor and options for gzip format

--lz= <command>

set compressor and options for lzip format

--xz= <command>

set compressor and options for xz format

--zst= <command>

set compressor and options for zstd format

Valid formats for options ’-M’ and ’-O’ are ’bz2’, ’gz’, ’lz’, ’xz’, ’zst’, and ’un’ for uncompressed.

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to zutils-bug@nongnu.org
Zutils home page: http://www.nongnu.org/zutils/zutils.html

COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2025 Antonio Diaz Diaz. License GPLv2+: GNU GPL version 2 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.