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| Chapter 2 UNIX Commands |

## sdiff

    sdiff [options] file1 file2

Produce a side-by-side comparison of `file1` with `file2`. Output is:

`text text`

  Identical lines.

`text <`

  Line exists only in `file1`.

> `text`

  Line exists only in `file2`.

`text` | `text`

  Lines are different.

### Options

-l

  List only lines of `file1` that are identical.

-o `outfile`

  Send identical lines of `file1` and `file2` to `outfile`; print line differences and edit `outfile` by entering, when prompted, the following commands:

  e

    Edit an empty file.

  e b

    Edit both left and right columns.

  e l

    Edit left column.

  e r

    Edit right column.

  l

    Append left column to outfile.

  q

    Exit the editor.

  r

    Append right column to outfile.

  s

    Silent mode; do not print identical lines.

  v

    Turn off "silent mode."

-s

  Do not print identical lines.

-w`n`

  Set line length to `n` (default is usually 130).

### Example

Show differences using 80 columns, and ignore identical lines:

>     sdiff -s -w80 list.1 list.2

Reference: sdb |  | Reference: sed