16.1 Options to sdiff

Below is a summary of all of the options that GNU sdiff accepts. Each option has two equivalent names, one of which is a single letter preceded by `-', and the other of which is a long name preceded by `--'. Multiple single letter options (unless they take an argument) can be combined into a single command line argument. Long named options can be abbreviated to any unique prefix of their name.

`-a'

`--text'

Treat all files as text and compare them line-by-line, even if they do not appear to be text. See section 1.7 Binary Files and Forcing Text Comparisons.

`-b'

`--ignore-space-change'

Ignore changes in amount of white space. See section 1.2 Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing.

`-B'

`--ignore-blank-lines'

Ignore changes that just insert or delete blank lines. See section 1.3 Suppressing Differences in Blank Lines.

`-d'

`--minimal'

Change the algorithm to perhaps find a smaller set of changes. This makes sdiff slower (sometimes much slower). See section 6. diff Performance Tradeoffs.

`--diff-program=program'

Use the compatible comparison program program to compare files instead of diff.

`-E'

`--ignore-tab-expansion'

Ignore changes due to tab expansion. See section 1.2 Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing.

`--help'

Output a summary of usage and then exit.

`-i'

`--ignore-case'

Ignore changes in case; consider upper- and lower-case to be the same. See section 1.4 Suppressing Case Differences.

`-I regexp'

`--ignore-matching-lines=regexp'

Ignore changes that just insert or delete lines that match regexp. See section 1.5 Suppressing Lines Matching a Regular Expression.

`-l'

`--left-column'

Print only the left column of two common lines. See section 2.4.1 Controlling Side by Side Format.

`-o file'

`--output=file'

Put merged output into file. This option is required for merging.

`-s'

`--suppress-common-lines'

Do not print common lines. See section 2.4.1 Controlling Side by Side Format.

`--speed-large-files'

Use heuristics to speed handling of large files that have numerous scattered small changes. See section 6. diff Performance Tradeoffs.

`--strip-trailing-cr'

Strip any trailing carriage return at the end of an input line. See section 1.7 Binary Files and Forcing Text Comparisons.

`-t'

`--expand-tabs'

Expand tabs to spaces in the output, to preserve the alignment of tabs in the input files. See section 5.1 Preserving Tab Stop Alignment.

`-v'

`--version'

Output version information and then exit.

`-w columns'

`--width=columns'

Output at most columns (default 130) print columns per line. See section 2.4.1 Controlling Side by Side Format. Note that for historical reasons, this option is `-W' in diff, `-w' in sdiff.

`-W'

`--ignore-all-space'

Ignore white space when comparing lines. See section 1.2 Suppressing Differences in Blank and Tab Spacing. Note that for historical reasons, this option is `-w' in diff, `-W' in sdiff.