DIFF.DOC Command line: ------------- DIFF infile outfile [changebar_file] [options] For VMS, you'll need to install DIFF as a foreign command as: DIFF :== $diskname:[pathname]DIFF.EXE Command line options: --------------------- /BAR_COL=n Selects the column in which the change bar will be placed. The default is column 78. If column 0 is selected, the change bar will be placed at the left edge of the document or source code, moving text to the right if necessary. If a space or a tab is the first character on the line, the alignment of the text should not be affected. If a nonzero column is selected, the change bar will be placed in the specified column if possible. If text extends over the specified column, the change bar will be moved as far to the right as is necessary not to overwrite text. A "feature" of the change-bar algorithm is that it can recognize and account for underlined text, at least the way Runoff and WordStar underline for "generic" printer, but not tabs. Tabs are counted as one column each. This produces amusing results on C source code. For best results, on document files choose a column to the right of your text. On program source code with embedded tabs, choose column 0. This is admittedly an area on which the program could be improved. I needed the underline capability, and if the tab expansion is added, the code in change_bar() gets uglier than it already is, e.g. /BAR_COL=0 /TOP_SKIP=n Used for processing formatted documents. Its primary reason for being is to allow you to skip over the header line(s) in a document. Header lines confuse DIFF if they are left in place because DIFF doesn't know from chopped liver about headers unless you tell it, and if the pagination changes between the old and the new files, DIFF will cheerfully changebar every header. Be sure to account for blank lines at the top of the page that precede the header line(s). The default value of /TOP_SKIP is 0, e.g. /TOP_SKIP=3. /BOT_SKIP=n Similar in use and purpose to the /TOP_SKIP option. It specifies how many lines at the bottom of the page should be skipped. Count lines up from the bottom, not down from the top. The default value of /BOT_SKIP is 0, e.g. /BOT_SKIP=8. /PAGE_LEN=n Sets the length of a page in lines. The default value is 66 lines. A form-feed character will override the /PAGE_LEN value and cause a new page to be started. DIFF needs to know the page length in order to skip headers and footers if /TOP_SKIP and /BOT_SKIP are specified. Also, the change summary lists changes by page and line number. For nonpaginated text, such as program source code, you should specify a value of /PAGE_LEN greater than the number of lines in newfile so that the change summary line numbers will correspond to file line numbers, e.g. /PAGE_LEN=2000. /UP_CASE, /NOUP_CASE Controls whether or not the case of alphabetic characters is significant when deciding if a line has changed. The default is /NOUP_CASE, which means that the case of a letter is significant. This is slightly faster than /UP_CASE, e.g. /UP_CASE. /RE_SYNC=n Controls how many lines must match between the two files after a difference has been found before the two files are considered to be back in sync. The default is five lines. Using a larger number will make DIFF smarted when considering files that have a lot of identical lines (such as BEGIN or END statements in Pascal). Using a smaller number will make DIFF smarter when considering a file that has a lot of small changes spaced closely together. For text, a value of 2 or 3 is good. For source code, a value of 5 is pretty good. /OUTPUT=filename Allows you to specify an output file for the change summary listing. In MS-DOS, this is exactly equivalent to redirecting standard output with the greater-than command-line option, and you can use either way in MS-DOS. In VMS, this matches the VMS standard redirection syntax. The default for /OUTPUT is SYS$OUTPUT on VMS and the console on MS-DOS, but this can be redirected as a command option, e.g. /OUTPUT=FILE1.SUM. /BLANKS, /NOBLANKS Lets you make blanks lines (for my purposes, a blank line contains only spaces or tabs) either significant or insignificant. This is most useful as it accounts for conditionally paging and trivial source code prettying. /LOOKAHEAD=n Controls how far DIFF will look forward in both files to find a rematch after it finds a difference. The default is 200 lines. A larger value lets you process files in which several pages are added or deleted between revisions. A smaller value runs much faster and uses less memory. Resynchronization (in the general case) is proportional to the square of /LOOKAHEAD. This value also affects the amount of memory the program uses. /SKIP1 Allows you to specify a number of pages to skip in the two files before starting the compare. This is most useful when skipping tables of contents, in which the page numbers may change but nobody cares. The default for /SKIP1 is 0 pages. The /SKIP1 option sets the page-skip values for both newfile and oldfile. /SKIP2 Same as /SKIP1, except that it only affects the page-skip value for oldfile. Because /SKIP1 affects both files, the /SKIP2 option must appear to the right of /SKIP1 on the command line to have any effect. The two option are provided because the tables of contents may be of different lengths. There are probably other reasons why /SKIP2 needs to be there, but I can't think of any right now. /TRACE Conditionally compiled and turns on function tracing. Error Messages -------------- Error: Must specify two files This occurs if the command line does not contain at least two file names. Out of Memory This error occurs if a large look-ahead is specified and/or if huge sections of text differ between the two files. ERROR - lost sync in file at page line After a difference was located, DIFF could not find where the files became synchronized. To correct, increase the value for /LOOKAHEAD. The page/line reported is the start of the point in newfile at which the difference was first detected. Error: Can't open DIFF was unable to open (for reading) one of the input files. Be sure that the file and path name are correct and that you have read privilege for that file. It may be caused by a forgotten slash (/) on an option that made DIFF interpret it a file name. Error: Can't create DIFF was unable to create the optional output change-bar file. Be sure that the name is a legal one and that you have write privilege for the directory in which the name is to be placed. Could be a forgotten slash, too. ERROR in option