## NAME

diff3 - compare three files line by line

## SYNOPSIS

diff3 [OPTION]... MYFILE OLDFILE YOURFILE

## DESCRIPTION

Compare three files line by line.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-A, --show-all output all changes, bracketing conflicts

-e, --ed output ed script incorporating changes from OLDFILE to YOURFILE into MYFILE

-E, --show-overlap like -e, but bracket conflicts

-3, --easy-only like -e, but incorporate only nonoverlapping changes

-x, --overlap-only like -e, but incorporate only overlapping changes

-X like -x, but bracket conflicts

-i append `w' and `q' commands to ed scripts

-m, --merge output actual merged file, according to -A if no other options are given

-a, --text treat all files as text

--strip-trailing-cr strip trailing carriage return on input

-T, --initial-tab make tabs line up by prepending a tab

--diff-program=PROGRAM use PROGRAM to compare files

-L, --label=LABEL use LABEL instead of file name (can be repeated up to three times)

--help display this help and exit

-v, --version output version information and exit

The default output format is a somewhat human-readable representation of the changes.

The -e, -E, -x, -X (and corresponding long) options cause an ed script to be output instead of the default.

Finally, the -m (--merge) option causes diff3 to do the merge internally and output the actual merged file. For unusual input, this is more robust than using ed.

If a FILE is `-', read standard input. Exit status is 0 if successful, 1 if conflicts, 2 if trouble.

## AUTHOR

Written by Randy Smith.

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-diffutils@gnu.org
GNU diffutils home page: <http://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>
General help using GNU software: <http://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright © 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 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.

## SEE ALSO

cmp(1), diff(1), sdiff(1)

The full documentation for diff3 is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and diff3 programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info diff3

should give you access to the complete manual.