This command is used to display the differences in the files by comparing the files line by line.
diff [options] File1 File2
- Lets say we have two files with names a.txt and b.txt containing 5 Indian states as follows-:
$ cat a.txt
Gujarat
Uttar Pradesh
Kolkata
Bihar
Jammu and Kashmir
$ cat b.txt
Tamil Nadu
Gujarat
Andhra Pradesh
Bihar
Uttar pradesh
On typing the diff command we will get below output.
$ diff a.txt b.txt
0a1
> Tamil Nadu
2,3c3
< Uttar Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
5c5
Uttar pradesh
| Short Flag | Description |
|---|---|
-c |
To view differences in context mode, use the -c option. |
-u |
To view differences in unified mode, use the -u option. It is similar to context mode |
-i |
By default this command is case sensitive. To make this command case in-sensitive use -i option with diff. |
-version |
This option is used to display the version of diff which is currently running on your system. |