NAME
dirdiff - display differences and merge changes between directory trees
SYNOPSIS
dirdiff [-a|--all] [-o|--only pattern] [-I|--ignore pattern] [-r|--rcs]
[-t|--bktag] [-c|--context num] [-b] [-w] [-B] [-i] [-d] [-S] [-k]
dir1 dir2 ...
OPTIONS
-a,--all
Don’t exclude any files.
-o,--only pattern
Only process files matching pattern.
-I,--ignore pattern
Don’t process files matching pattern.
-r,--rcs
Ignore differences in RCS strings.
-t,--bktag
Ignore differences in Bitkeeper strings.
-c,--context num
Set number of lines of context to show.
-b,-w,-B,-i,-d
Pass these on to diff.
-S Show files that are the same in the file list.
-K Enable bitkeeper support.
DESCRIPTION
Dirdiff is a graphical tool for displaying the differences between
directory trees (up to 5) and for merging changes from one tree into
another.
At startup, dirdiff displays a main window with a list of the files
that are different between the trees. Colored squares are used to
indicate the relative ages of the versions. Files are like leaves on a
deciduous tree: the newest ones are green, and then they turn yellow,
orange, and red as they get older. Missing files are black, and
directories are white.
To see the differences between two versions of a file, double-click on
the file name. By default, the first and last versions are compared,
but this can be changed using the Diff menu in the main window. In the
differences window, there are checkboxes to the left of all the
sections which are different. You can use button 1 to select an
individual checkbox, or shift-button 1 or button 3 to select a whole
group. Selecting a line means that you are asking for that change to
be made when you update either of the files using the Merge menu. The
line will be removed if it is already present or added if it is not
present.
To copy from one tree to another, click on the file name and select the
appropriate copy operation from the Copy menu of the main window.
Selecting Make patch from the File menu of the main window produces a
file describing the changes between the files that can be applied by
the patch tool. You can edit the patch before saving, and may wish to
add explanatory text, instructions, or patch Prereq lines at the
beginning. To save the patch, enter a filename in the patch window
relative to the current directory, and choose Save. This will also
close the window.
If you are sending out patches, then the from directory should be the
original version of the source. Try to make sure that the two files
have the same number of leading directories. See the patch(1) man page
for more information.
NOTES
Dirdiff needs to be able to load the libfilecmp.so.0.0 shared library
for the -r or -t flags to work.
SEE ALSO
diff(1) patch(1)
AUTHOR
Paul Mackerras
May 2002