{"id":11244,"date":"2021-10-28T13:26:31","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T13:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/?p=11244"},"modified":"2021-10-28T13:26:31","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T13:26:31","slug":"diff-command-in-linux","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/centos\/diff-command-in-linux\/","title":{"rendered":"diff Command in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/h2>\n

diff is an acronym for the difference. It is a useful command used to compare the differences between files based on the lines of the file.<\/p>\n

This command just tells us which line to change in the file to make the 2 files the same. To be more precise, it creates a list of changes in the first file to match the second file.<\/p>\n

This tutorial will guide you on how to compare two text files by the diff command in Linux as you go through below.<\/p>\n

The syntax of diff command<\/h2>\n
$ diff [options] file1 file2<\/pre>\n
You need to remember some special symbols of diff:<\/p>\n
a: add<\/p>\n
c: change<\/p>\n
d: delete<\/p>\n
For example, I have 2 files a.txt and b.txt<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now we will try to use the diff command with these 2 files:<\/p>\n
$ diff a.txt b.txt<\/pre>\n
Output:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This command will print out:<\/p>\n
    \n
  • Corresponding line number.<\/li>\n
  • Special symbols.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
    Definition<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
    0a1,2 means from line 0 you need to a<\/strong>dd Malaysia and Campuchia to lines 1, 2 of the first file.<\/p>\n
    3,5c5 means from line 3 to line 5 of the first file you need to c<\/strong>hange it to match line 5 of the second file.<\/p>\n
    — to separate line 1 from line 2.<\/p>\n
    Options<\/h2>\n
    1. -c (context)<\/strong>: Provides context to easily spot the differences<\/p>\n
    We will apply with files a.txt and b.txt:<\/p>\n
    $ diff -c a.txt b.txt<\/pre>\n
    Output:<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    *** to specify the first file<\/p>\n
    — to specify the second file<\/p>\n
    + to specify lines that need to add to the first file<\/p>\n
    ! to specify lines that changed<\/p>\n
    2. -u (unified):<\/strong> To check differences in unified mode<\/p>\n
    $ diff -u a.txt b.txt<\/pre>\n
    Output:<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    — to specify the first file<\/p>\n
    +++ to specify the second file<\/p>\n
    @@ mark the beginning of changes and which line of each file<\/p>\n
    3. -i<\/strong>: To case sensitive<\/p>\n
    For example, I have 2 files a.txt and b.txt<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    Now we will try to use the diff command with -i<\/strong> option with these 2 files:<\/p>\n
    $ diff -i a.txt b.txt<\/pre>\n
    Output:<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    4. –version<\/strong>: Check your version<\/p>\n
    $ diff --version<\/pre>\n
    Output:<\/p>\n
    <\/p>\n
    Conclusion<\/h2>\n
    In this article, we guided you on how to compare two text files by the diff command in Linux.<\/p>\n
    Thanks for reading!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    Introduction diff is an acronym for the difference. It is a useful command used to compare the differences between files based on the lines of the file. This…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4,5,83,165,2],"tags":[633,35],"class_list":["post-11244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-centos","category-debian","category-mint","category-opensuse","category-red-hat","category-ubuntu","tag-diff-command","tag-linux"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linuxways.net\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}