Skip to main content

Questions tagged [diff]

diff is a file comparison utility that outputs the differences between two files.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
312 votes
4 answers
162k views

How do I diff the output of two commands?

I had imagined the simplest way to compare the contents of two similar directories would be something like diff `ls old` `ls new` But I see why this doesn't work; diff is being handed a big long ...
Ternary's user avatar
  • 4,017
159 votes
20 answers
204k views

File and directory comparison tool?

I'm looking for something that will compare directories and files like Beyond Compare does for windows. Its mainly for use of source control, but I need to use it for deployment as well.
DevelopingChris's user avatar
83 votes
5 answers
72k views

Does "diff" exist for images?

You can compare two text files very easy with diff and even better with meld: If you use diff for images, you get an example like this: $ diff zivi-besch.tif zivildienst.tif Binary files zivi-besch....
Martin Thoma's user avatar
  • 19.5k
58 votes
6 answers
96k views

Diff reports difference but both lines are the same

I diff-ed 2 files and got 1c1 < 1 --- > 1 Both files contained just "1". How is this different?
Jiew Meng's user avatar
  • 10.4k
30 votes
4 answers
111k views

How to diff multiple files across directories?

I am trying to find diffs between all files of same names across two copies of a directory (say a working and a backup). For example, I can diff two files of same name in both: > diff d1/f.cpp d2/...
ysap's user avatar
  • 7,001
28 votes
3 answers
70k views

Best alternative for WinMerge

I need to compare/diff/merge files in an easy way. In Dark ages when i'm a windows user I would use WinMerge. What alternatives for this are available in Ubuntu? The things I must be able to do: See ...
Miller's user avatar
  • 583
18 votes
4 answers
9k views

How can I "diff" two files with Nautilus?

I have installed Meld and found out it's a great comparing tool. Unfortunately there is no integration with Nautilus 3.2. This means, I can't right click on files and select an option to open them in ...
bioShark's user avatar
  • 4,251
16 votes
2 answers
25k views

exit code of diff

If I run diff -q on two files and they are identical, the exit code generated by echo $? is 0; if the files differ, the exit code is 1. Why is that? In what way is the first diff a success and the ...
DK Bose's user avatar
  • 43.1k
15 votes
5 answers
8k views

Difference of two big files

I have "test1.csv" and it contains 200,400,600,800 100,300,500,700 50,25,125,310 and test2.csv and it contains 100,4,2,1,7 200,400,600,800 21,22,23,24,25 50,25,125,310 50,25,700,5 now diff test2....
Lynob's user avatar
  • 6,685
15 votes
3 answers
7k views

meld shows output in unreadable alphabet (Japanese/Chinese?)

I am using meld to visualise a diff between two files. meld shows the diff output in... something like Japanese or Chinese? Any idea what could happen? A locale issue? What is strange is that when ...
Matifou's user avatar
  • 707
14 votes
2 answers
36k views

Run diff command to compare all files in directory

I have two folders having in theory an identical folder structure and the same files. I wish to check for differences between the two copies in the two folders. I can run diff folder1/file1 folder2/...
To Do's user avatar
  • 15.6k
13 votes
3 answers
16k views

Diffrence between two dirs?

I have two identical folders, but the are not identical(for example Java installation dir). One dir has one extra file and one file has been changed. Is there any easy to use tool to check that or do ...
UAdapter's user avatar
  • 17.7k
11 votes
3 answers
3k views

Compare source code files, ignoring formatting differences (like whitespace, linebreaks, ...)

I am looking for an application that can compare two C++ sources and find the code-meaningful differences (to compare versions which may have been reformatted differently). At the very minimum, ...
sancho.s ReinstateMonicaCellio's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
27k views

Bluetooth USB dongle 5.0 0a12:0001 doesn't work on Ubuntu 20.04

WIRELESS USB DONGLE - BLUETOOTH USB DONGLE - MINI 5.0 - VERSION 5.48 - 0a12:0001 So lately I bought a Bluetooth USB dongle - model no: MLT-5.0-MiNi I'm using Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS. 1. After I connected ...
luisito_36's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
8k views

Is there any command line interactive tool like meld?

I usually work on someone else's code base on a remote system and often need to merge code from two different files. For that I have to pull files to my system and meld it and push it back to the ...
Sunil Shahu's user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
9k views

Show only right side of --side-by-side diff

I don't seem to find a way around this. Is there a one-liner to get only the right side of a diff --side-by-side output? For example: For this: diff --side-by-side file1 file2 I get either of this ...
Tulains Córdova's user avatar
6 votes
2 answers
5k views

Simple diff command output

I've seen many examples of the use of the diff command, but none detailing its basic use. Here is the content of the two files I would like to use: cat -A file1.txt a$ b$ c$ d$ cat -A file2.txt b$ c$...
John_Patrick_Mason's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
6k views

Make the `diff` command look only for differences from a specified range of lines

Is there a way to make the diff command look only for differences from a specified range of lines (from from line to to line), instead of the entire file? I am having difficulty trying to find the ...
JAT86's user avatar
  • 233
6 votes
1 answer
447 views

Tools to diff deb-src packages between Ubuntu and Debian repos

I can already create duplicate repos with the same versions of debs and deb-src packages. The problem is that I want to find the Ubuntu changes from Debian mainline (not from original source). ...
RobotHumans's user avatar
  • 29.7k
6 votes
2 answers
5k views

How to diff two folders to multiple patch files

I'm not much of a unix guy so I'll just go ahead and ask: I have a following problem - two folders with plenty of subfolders. I need to diff them. I tried this: diff -drupN vanila_kernel_3.0.8 ...
Shark's user avatar
  • 217
5 votes
5 answers
6k views

Comparing contents of two files

I have two files containing list of all files paths from two hard drives (supposed to be exactly the same), one of which I think has missing files. Both lists have the file path and size, but the ...
SD_NZ's user avatar
  • 91
5 votes
2 answers
3k views

Does Ubuntu have any graphical software to compare and merge differences in files? [duplicate]

I want to compare two or more files and merge the differences as needed. I was using Windows but now working on Ubuntu 12.04. In windows "Beyond compare" made my work easier, but since I ...
user2823274's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
260 views

Is it possible to change default diff tool for apt (or maybe it is for shell)?

I'm not sure is it apt or shell setting or is it a setting at all but whenever there is a conflict on a configuration file while doing apt upgrade I'm presented with these options: Y or I : install ...
Rychu's user avatar
  • 493
5 votes
0 answers
107 views

File comparison on the command line [duplicate]

There are 2 files, that are almost similar. Say, for example, only 2 lines in one file do not match the contants of another file. Is there a way to make a comparison between these 2 files, and write ...
PersonX's user avatar
  • 1,097
4 votes
1 answer
14k views

Can't install "meld"

I'm trying to install meld on Ubuntu (I use VirtualBox on Windows 7) in order to visualize git diff: sudo apt-get install meld But, it doesn't succeed: ... Get:9 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/...
Misha Moroshko's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
9k views

meld installation issue

I am trying to install the meld diff viewer on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. When I run sudo apt-get install meld I get the following output: Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree ...
txmystic's user avatar
  • 333
3 votes
3 answers
8k views

Diff command to compare files which are in first directory only

I have 2 folders whose contents I want to compare. For instance I have folder 1 and folder 2. Folder 2 has a lot of new files + some files same as folder 1 but with some changes in contents of these ...
Reena Parekh's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
506 views

How to read bzr diff

original: if __name__ == "__main__": myparams = {"server":"mpilgrim", \ "database":"master", \ "uid":"sa", \ "pwd":"secret" \ ...
Paradiesstaub's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
6k views

How can I check why diff command failed?

I was running diff --brief -r /home/mateusz/ /media/mateusz/Database/backup_test_tmp_folder/home/mateusz/ command that completed with error code 2. According to documentation "Exit status is 0 if ...
reducing activity's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

PostgreSQL data diff

Note: this question is not about syncing database schema/structure Problem In my web application I have a PostgreSQL database server (PGS) and a (separate machine) business logic server (BLS) which ...
skanatek's user avatar
  • 321
3 votes
2 answers
6k views

nautilus-compare (meld integration with nautilus) and other nautilus-actions-extra packages not working with Ubuntu 13.04

I had nautilus-compare (and other nautilus-actions-extra packages) perfectly working with Ubuntu 12.04 I've just did a fresh install of Ubuntu raring ringtail, and then I ran sudo apt-get install ...
opensas's user avatar
  • 3,207
3 votes
1 answer
168 views

Passing 2 parameters to "Open with.."

I do a lot of diffing and I would like to have kdiff3 under "Open with...". When from console I execute kdiff3 file1 file2 then kdiff is runned and it compares those two files. however this does not ...
UAdapter's user avatar
  • 17.7k
3 votes
1 answer
451 views

How to make 'diff' output line-by-line?

I have a seemingly simple question I can't find answer for. Say, I have two files: A B C D and A X Y D When I run diff -U 1000 on these, I get: A -B -C +X +Y D Instead, I'd like to get: A -...
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
232 views

Kdiff3 works very slowly in 16.04

After installing 16.04 I've noticed that Kdiff3 worked much slower than in 14.04. In 14.04 it worked well with 200MB files and in 16.04 even 2MB files take around 1-2 minutes to process. And 200MB ...
Ivan Smirnov's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
493 views

convert normal diff to unified diff or use normal diff in patch

I have a normal diff file but I can't patch with it. So how can I convert this normal diff to unified diff or patch with normal diff file? Only in /tmp/ns-allinone-2.26/ns-2.26/common: misc.o diff -...
H.Hoang's user avatar
  • 31
3 votes
0 answers
29 views

Nautilus: change "paste" to auto-check copied file against original

Is it somehow possible (maybe with nautilus actions?) to change the behaviour of the "paste" functionality or to add a new paste functionality that does the following: paste as normal do a diff of ...
JLTD's user avatar
  • 639
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

How to find same subfolders in two folders on first level only?

Scenario: 2 main folders, that may have subfolders with the same names (I do not know what names might be duplicated, that's what I am trying to find) the subfolders have MANY other files & ...
jave.web's user avatar
  • 420
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Ingore lines with a specific word with diff

I wonder if diff can ignor differences in lines with a specific word (example: CET). Example: 9c9 < <set name="ti_zone">CET</set> --- > <set name="time_zone">CET</...
Wolfy's user avatar
  • 7,950
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Cronjob under Ubuntu runs slow

I configured a cronjob (running a bash script) with crontab -e which locally copies some data from one hard drive to another (rsync) and after that compares them (diff). I executed the script ...
Willi Mentzel's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
911 views

How do I make a unified patch with diff?

I have two directories src and src-with-fixes. I want to make a unified patch, so people can download the src dir and the patch file and run patch -p1 < patch.diff and get the fixes in the src dir.
wb9688's user avatar
  • 1,437
2 votes
1 answer
736 views

Graphical Diff viewer that supports LXDE (Lubuntu)

I've installed a fresh copy of Lubuntu on my netbook for the purpose of development "on-the-go". I've installed most of the tools I need except for one handy one: Meld Diff Viewer. Meld required ...
triplethreat78's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why isn't the diff command working as I expect in this Bash script?

I'm not understanding why the diff command is not working correctly in my script. Can anybody clarify it for me? Here is the bash script: #!/bin/bash SRC="src-folder" DST="dst-folder&...
martin's user avatar
  • 21
2 votes
1 answer
968 views

Compare files in directories with different structures and show differences (20.04)

While this may sound like a task that could be accomplished by rsync, diff and the likes, I haven't managed to succeed. AFAIK, these tools take the directory structure into account when comparing the ...
Frozenpick's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
218 views

ZFS Diff - diff delegated permission is needed

When running zfs diff today as non-root, I got an error: Unable to obtain diffs: The sys_mount privilege or diff delegated permission is needed to execute the diff ioctl Searching diff ...
Timothy C. Quinn's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
176 views

How to pass 3rd arg to diff which is a call to another program with multiple arguments?

I want to use diff to compare a text file with the output of a program. I realise I can redirect the output of the program to a file and then compare 2 files but was wondering if it is possible to do ...
arcomber's user avatar
  • 173
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

How do I make diff print duplicates only?

I'm trying to find out which files are present in two compared folders. I'm only interested in comparing filenames. Adding -s to the command does not do the trick for some reason. I want to reuse the ...
treakec's user avatar
  • 63
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Use vimdiff in place of diff to compare configs during package updates

Sometimes when you perform packages updates, you'll be prompted with action to take when apt tries to update packages which contain updated configs. I'd like to know if there's a way to invoke ...
Flint's user avatar
  • 3,151
2 votes
1 answer
177 views

How to fix a build when trying to patch the original file?

I'm trying to create a package of Bugzilla 4 in a Launchpad PPA. Keep getting a malformed patch and have redid the patch from ground up numerous times without any success. One of the logs can be seen ...
Tamer's user avatar
  • 592
2 votes
1 answer
76 views

How to transfer diff between two different file formats?

I often find it convenient to edit a document in one file format while storing it in another format. For example, a document can be written down in markdown, converted to a word file and edited there. ...
tinlyx's user avatar
  • 3,240
2 votes
2 answers
214 views

using diff to compare a file and a directory

there is probably a simpler way to do this but I ran ls on the /media/user directory with no usb storage plugged in and saved the output to a file and I wanted to use diff to compare the file with a ...
Eric Newman's user avatar