NAME

gendiff - utility to aid in error-free diff file generation

SYNOPSIS

gendiff [diff-options] <directory> <diff-siffux> [patch-name]

DESCRIPTION

gendiff is a rather simple script which aids in generating a diff file from a single directory. It takes a directory name and a "diff-extension" as its only arguments. The diff extension should be a unique sequence of characters added to the end of all original, unmodified files. The output of the program is a diff file which may be applied with the patch program to recreate the changes.

The usual sequence of events for creating a diff is to create two identical directories, make changes in one directory, and then use the diff utility to create a list of differences between the two. Using gendiff eliminates the need for the extra, original and unmodified directory copy. Instead, only the individual files that are modified need to be saved.

Before editing a file, copy the file, appending the extension you have chosen to the filename. I.e. if you were going to edit somefile.cpp and have chosen the extension "fix", copy it to somefile.cpp.fix before editing it. (If you are a Vim user, you may want to just set the patchmode option.) Then edit the first copy (somefile.cpp).

After editing all the files you need to edit in this fashion, enter the directory one level above where your source code resides, and then type

    $ gendiff somedirectory .fix > mydiff-fix.patch

    $ gendiff somedirectory .fix fix

OPTIONS

The following GNU diff options are recognized:

-i --ignore-case

Ignore case differences in file contents.

-E --ignore-tab-expansion

Ignore changes due to tab expansion.

-b --ignore-space-change

Ignore changes in the amount of white space.

-w --ignore-all-space

Ignore all white space.

-B --ignore-blank-lines

Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.

-a --text

Treat all files as text.

SEE ALSO

diff(1), patch(1)

AUTHOR

Marc Ewing <marc@redhat.com>