XXDIFF(1)

💖 XXDIFF — the graphical file comparator & merge tool 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because this is the manual page for xxdiff, from section 1 of the General Commands Manual. she's a whole vibe and she's here to show you your diffs in full color. 🎀

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

xxdiff [OPTIONS] <path> <path> [<path>]

🌈 OVERVIEW 🌈

xxdiff is a graphical file and directories comparison and merge tool, fr fr. she's got range: you can use her to view the differences between two or three files, or two directories, and she can also produce a merged version. the texts of the two or three files get laid out side by side, with their differences highlighted with colors so your eyes can find them instantly. it's giving "spot the difference but make it fashion." 💅

the paths you hand over on the command line are the ones identifying the files to be compared. and a path can be one of three things:

• a regular file
• a directory
• a - — in which case the input for that path gets read from standard input 📥

if the paths are all directories, a directory diff gets performed. if at least one path is a file or a -, a file diff gets performed. and if you mix directory names in with file names, then the basename of the file name gets appended to the directory names, so she can find the other files to compare against. 🕵️‍♀️

⚠️ okay but listen: if there are multiple file names specified and some directory names too, xxdiff bails out. she literally cannot, because she doesn't know which basename to use for the missing one. no cap. 😭

please consult xxdiff --help for more documentation. 🫶

✨ OPTIONS ✨

• --help — shows help about options. bestie behavior honestly.
• --help-qt — shows Qt specific options.
• --help-all — shows all the options. the whole menu, periodt.
• --help-html — outputs the documentation in HTML. fancy.
• --version, -v — shows version information and the compilation options she was built with. she's telling you her whole lore. 👑

🩺 DIAGNOSTICS 🩺

she returns the exit status generated by the diff command. which is usually:

• 0 — for no differences 🌸
• 1 — for some differences
• 2 — for errors 💀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

diff(1), xxdiff-encrypted.html, xxdiff-match.html, xxdiff-cvs-diff.html, xxdiff-find-grep-sed.html, xxdiff-match.html

(yes, xxdiff-match.html is listed twice. iconic of her. we keep the list exactly as it is. 💖)

📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Copyright (C) 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 Martin Blais

See the GNU General Public License for a full statement of rights and permissions.

🫶 AUTHOR 🫶

Martin Blais <blais@furius.ca>

The Debian Linux package is maintained by Tomas Pospisek <tpo_deb@sourcepole.ch>.

and that's the whole page, bestie — brought to you by the General Commands Manual for XXDIFF(1). no date on the tin, just vibes. go forth and diff slayfully. 💅✨🎀🦋🌸