NAME

       vdiff - display line-by-line differences between versions of files

SYNOPSIS

       vdiff [ diff-options ] [ -base path ] [ -P ] files ..

DESCRIPTION

       vdiff  is  a  differential comparator for file versions that are stored in shapeTools' object base, AtFS.
       The functionality of vdiff is very similar to the diff command on your host.  All  options  and  switches
       that are recognized by diff can also be specified for vdiff.

       The  arguments  to  vdiff  can  either  be a single filename, or a pair of version identifiers. If only a
       filename is specified, vdiff prints the differences between  the  specified  file  and  the  most  recent
       version of this file that is stored in the AtFS object base. A file can be compared to any stored version
       by  specifying  the  version as first, and the filename as second argument. If both arguments are version
       identifiers, the difference between these two versions is printed.

       Differences between files and versions can be printed in any style that is supported by  the  local  diff
       program.

       Version  identifiers  consist of the filename, and a version number or alias name for a version, enclosed
       in brackets. Example:
                                     retrieve.c[4.22]    or    retrieve.c[Rel-4.1]

       vdiff creates temporary copies of the versions that shall be compared,  invokes  the  diff  command,  and
       finally removes the temporary copies.

OPTIONS

       -base path
              If  vdiff is told to produce a context diff, the filenames of the compared objects are mangeled so
              that the specified path replaces the path of the current directory in the full pathnames appearing
              in the diff-header. This is useful to replace an absolute pathname  by  a  relative  pathname  and
              makes the produced context-diff easier to digest for the patch program.

       -P     With the -P switch turned on, vdiff won't give up if one of the two objects that shall be compared
              does  not exist. In this case an empty object is substituted for the missing one, causing the diff
              to be the complete contents of the existing object. This is  useful  in  situations  when  complex
              patches  are  produced  that  upgrade  one  release of a software system to a new release, and the
              system has structurally changed (i.e. new files have been added to the system).

SEE ALSO

       diff(1), vcat(1)

AUTHOR

       Axel.Mahler@cs.tu-berlin.de

vc_scripts-2.5                              Tue Jun 29 16:42:06 1993                                    vdiff(1)