'\"macro stdmacro
.if n .pH g1.bdiff @(#)bdiff	40.4 of 10/10/89
.\" Copyright 1989 AT&T
.nr X
.if \nX=0 .ds x} bdiff 1 "Directory and File Management Utilities" "\&"
.if \nX=1 .ds x} bdiff 1 "Directory and File Management Utilities"
.if \nX=2 .ds x} bdiff 1 "" "\&"
.if \nX=3 .ds x} bdiff "" "" "\&"
.TH \*(x}
.SH NAME
\f4bdiff\f1 \- big \f4diff\fP
.SH SYNOPSIS
\f4bdiff\f1
.I file1
.I file2
[
.I n
]
\f1[\f4\-s\f1]
.SH DESCRIPTION
\f4bdiff\fP
is used in a manner analogous to
\f4diff\fP
to find which lines in
.I file1
and
.I file2
must be changed to bring the files into agreement.
Its purpose is to allow processing of files too large for
\f4diff\fP.
If
.I "file1 (file2)"
is
\f4\-\f1,
the standard input is read.
.PP
Valid options to \f4bdiff\fP are:
.TP
.I n
The number of line segments.
The value of
.I n
is 3500 by default.
If the optional third argument is given and it is numeric,
it is used as the value for
.IR n .
This is useful in those cases in which 3500-line segments are too large for
\f4diff\fP,
causing it to fail.
.TP
\f4\-s\f1
Specifies that no diagnostics are to be printed by \f4bdiff\fP (silent option).
Note, however, that this does not suppress possible diagnostic messages
from \f4diff\fP, which \f4bdiff\fP calls.
.PP
\f4bdiff\fP
ignores lines common to the beginning of both files,
splits the remainder of each file into
.IR n -line
segments, and invokes
\f4diff\fP
on corresponding segments.
If both optional arguments are specified, they must appear in the
order indicated above.
.PP
The output of
\f4bdiff\fP
is exactly that of
\f4diff\fP,
with line numbers adjusted to account for the segmenting of the files
(that is, to make it look as if the files had been processed
whole).
Note that
because of the segmenting of the files,
\f4bdiff\fP
does not necessarily find a
smallest sufficient set of file differences.
.SH FILES
\f4/tmp/bd\f2?????\f1
.SH "SEE ALSO"
\f4diff\fP(1), \f4help\fP(1)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Use
\f4help\fP
for explanations.
.\"	@(#)bdiff.1	6.2 of 9/2/83
.Ee
