rcsdiff

Compare RCS revisions (UNIX)

Syntax:

Print the version number:

    rcsdiff -V

Compare RCS revisions:

    rcsdiff [options] [diff_options] file...

Options:

The rcsdiff utility does not follow the standard utility syntax conventions. Options and their arguments may not be separated by white space, and options may not be combined in single command line arguments (i.e. multiple options must be separated by spaces in the command line).

-ksubst

Set the default keyword substitution to subst.

-q

Be quiet; suppress diagnostic output.

-rrev1 [-rrev2]

Compare these revisions. Both rev1 and rev2 may be given numerically or symbolically.

-T

Preserve the file modification time.

-V

Print the version number.

-Vn

Emulate RCS version n. For details, see the co utility.

-xsuffix

Specifies the suffixes for RCS files. See ci for details.

-zzone

Set the default timezone to zone.

diff_options

Any options which apply to diff except -r may be specified to rcsdiff. These options will be passed on to diff when the revisions are being compared.

Description:

The rcsdiff utility runs diff to compare two revisions of each RCS file given. Filenames ending in ,v (or the suffix specified by -x) denote RCS files; all others are assumed to be working files. The rcsdiff utility derives the working filename from the RCS filename and vice versa, as explained for the co utility. You can specify pairs consisting of an RCS filename and a working filename.

All options of diff that apply to regular files are accepted, with the same meaning as for diff.

The comparisons rcs performs depend on whether you specify rev1 and/or rev2:

The -k option affects keyword substitution when extracting revisions, as described in the co utility. 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 provided that:

• at most one revision option is given
• no -k option is given
• -kkv is the default keyword substitution
• the working file's mode would be produced by co -l

Examples:

Compare the latest revision on the default branch of the RCS file RCS/f.c,v to the contents of the f.c. working file:

    rcsdiff f.c

Exit status:

0

No differences were found during any comparison.

1

Some differences were found.

2

An error occurred.

Contributing author:

GNU

See also:

ci, co, diff, diff3, ident, rcs, rcsmerge, rlog

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

Don Bolinger & Tan Bronson, Applying RCS & SCCS, O'Reilly and Associates, 1995.