rcsdiff

NAME

rcsdiff - compare RCS revisions

SYNOPSIS

rcsdiff [-k subst] [-q ] [-r rev1 [-r rev2]]
		[-V n] [-x suffixes] [diff_options] file ...

DESCRIPTION

The rcsdiff(1) utility runs diff(1) to compare two revisions of each Revision Control System (RCS) file given.

Path names matching an RCS suffix denote RCS files; all others denote working files. Names are paired as explained in ci(1).

The rcsdiff(1) utility takes all the options of diff(1) that apply to regular files, with the same meaning as for diff(1). In addition, rcsdiff(1) accepts the following:

-ksubst
Control keyword substitution when extracting revisions, as described in co(1); for example, -kk -r1.1 -r1.2 ignores differences in keyword values when comparing revisions 1.1 and 1.2. To avoid excess output from locker name substitution, -kkvl is assumed if:
  1. At most, one revision option is given
  2. No -k option is given
  3. -kkv is the default keyword substitution
  4. The working file's mode would be produced by co -l.
-q
Suppress diagnostic output.
-rrev
Specify a particular revision, rev. Zero, one, or two revisions can be specified with -r. If both rev1 and rev2 are omitted, rcsdiff(1) compares the latest revision on the default branch (by default the trunk) with the contents of the corresponding working file. This is useful for determining what you changed since the last checkin.

If rev1 is given, but rev2 is omitted, rcsdiff(1) compares revision rev1 of the RCS file with the contents of the corresponding working file.

If both rev1 and rev2 are given, rcsdiff(1) compares revisions rev1 and rev2 of the RCS file.

Both rev1 and rev2 can be given numerically or symbolically.

-Vn
Emulate RCS version n, where n can be 3, 4, or 5. This can be useful when interchanging RCS files with others that are running older versions of RCS. To see which version of RCS your correspondents are running, have them invoke rlog on an RCS file; if none of the first few lines of output contain the string branch it is version 3; if the dates' years have just two digits, it is version 4; otherwise, it is version 5. An RCS file generated while emulating version 3 will lose its default branch. An RCS revision generated while emulating version 4 or earlier will have a time stamp that is off by up to 13 hours. A revision extracted while emulating version 4 or earlier will contain dates of the form yy/mm/dd instead of yyyy/mm/dd, and might also contain different white space in the substitution for $Log$.
-xsuffixes
Use suffixes to characterize RCS files. See ci(1) for details.

EXAMPLE

The command

$ rcsdiff  f.c
compares the latest revision on the default branch of the RCS file to the contents of the working file f.c.

ENVIRONMENT

RCSINIT
A list of options prepended to the argument list, separated by spaces. See ci(1) for details.

DIAGNOSTICS

Exit status is 0 for no differences during any comparison, 1 for some differences, 2 for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION

Author: Walter F. Tichy.

Revision Number: 1.7; Release Date: 1999/06/09.

Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.

Copyright © 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert.

SEE ALSO

ci(1)

co(1)

diff(1)

ident(1)

rcs(1)

rcsmerge(1)

rlog(1)

rcsintro(5)

Walter F. Tichy, RCS--A System for Version Control, Software--Practice & Experience 15, 7 (July 1985), 637-654.