diff Command

The diff command in Linux is used to compare the contents of two files, or two sets of files, and display the differences between them. It can be used to find changes between two versions of the same file, or to compare the contents of two files that have similar names but different contents. Here are some examples of how you can use the diff command:

To compare the contents of two files:

diff file1.txt file2.txt

This command will compare the contents of file1.txt and file2.txt and display the differences between them.

To compare the contents of two directories:

diff -r dir1 dir2

This command will compare the contents of dir1 and dir2 (including all files and subdirectories) and display the differences between them.

To output the differences in a format that can be applied using patch

diff -u file1.txt file2.txt > patchfile.txt

To ignore leading/trailing white space

diff -w file1.txt file2.txt

To ignore the case of characters

diff -i file1.txt file2.txt

To compare the contents of two files, including line numbers

diff -N file1.txt file2.txt

diff command provides many options to handle and format the output, you can use those options to suit your specific use case. The options and usage may vary depending on the version of diff and the OS you are using, refer the manual of your version for more options and usage.

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Other Linux Commands

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Other Linux Commands

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