NEWS revision 30839 
1User-visible changes in version 2.7:
2
3* New diff option: --binary (useful only on non-Posix hosts)
4* diff -b and -w now ignore line incompleteness; -B no longer does this.
5* cmp -c now uses locale to decide which output characters to quote.
6* Help and version messages are reorganized.
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8
9User-visible changes in version 2.6:
10
11* New cmp, diff, diff3, sdiff option: --help
12* A new heuristic for diff greatly reduces the time needed to compare
13  large input files that contain many differences.
14* Partly as a result, GNU diff's output is not exactly the same as before.
15  Usually it is a bit smaller, but sometimes it is a bit larger.
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17
18User-visible changes in version 2.5:
19
20* New cmp option: -v --version
21
22
23User-visible changes in version 2.4:
24
25* New cmp option: --ignore-initial=BYTES
26* New diff3 option: -T --initial-tab
27* New diff option: --line-format=FORMAT
28* New diff group format specifications:
29  <PRINTF_SPEC>[eflmnEFLMN]
30      A printf spec followed by one of the following letters
31      causes the integer corresponding to that letter to be
32      printed according to the printf specification.
33      E.g. `%5df' prints the number of the first line in the
34      group in the old file using the "%5d" format.
35	e: line number just before the group in old file; equals f - 1
36	f: first line number in group in the old file
37	l: last line number in group in the old file
38	m: line number just after the group in old file; equals l + 1
39	n: number of lines in group in the old file; equals l - f + 1
40	E, F, L, M, N: likewise, for lines in the new file
41  %(A=B?T:E)
42      If A equals B then T else E.  A and B are each either a decimal
43      constant or a single letter interpreted as above.  T and E are
44      arbitrary format strings.  This format spec is equivalent to T if
45      A's value equals B's; otherwise it is equivalent to E.  For
46      example, `%(N=0?no:%dN) line%(N=1?:s)' is equivalent to `no lines'
47      if N (the number of lines in the group in the the new file) is 0,
48      to `1 line' if N is 1, and to `%dN lines' otherwise.
49  %c'C'
50      where C is a single character, stands for the character C.  C may not
51      be a backslash or an apostrophe.  E.g. %c':' stands for a colon.
52  %c'\O'
53      where O is a string of 1, 2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the
54      character with octal code O.  E.g. %c'\0' stands for a null character.
55* New diff line format specifications:
56  <PRINTF_SPEC>n
57      The line number, printed with <PRINTF_SPEC>.
58      E.g. `%5dn' prints the line number with a "%5d" format.
59  %c'C'
60  %c'\O'
61      The character C, or with octal code O, as above.
62* Supported <PRINTF_SPEC>s have the same meaning as with printf, but must
63  match the extended regular expression %-*[0-9]*(\.[0-9]*)?[doxX].
64* The format spec %0 introduced in version 2.1 has been removed, since it
65  is incompatible with printf specs like %02d.  To represent a null char,
66  use %c'\0' instead.
67* cmp and diff now conform to Posix.2 (ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993)
68  if the underlying system conforms to Posix:
69  - Some messages' wordings are changed in minor ways.
70  - ``White space'' is now whatever C's `isspace' says it is.
71  - When comparing directories, if `diff' finds a file that is not a regular
72    file or a directory, it reports the file's type instead of diffing it.
73    (As usual, it follows symbolic links first.)
74  - When signaled, sdiff exits with the signal's status, not with status 2.
75* Now portable to hosts where int, long, pointer, etc. are not all the same
76  size.
77* `cmp - -' now works like `diff - -'.
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80User-visible changes in version 2.3:
81
82* New diff option: --horizon-lines=lines
83
84
85User-visible changes in version 2.1:
86
87* New diff options:
88  --{old,new,unchanged}-line-format='format'
89  --{old,new,unchanged,changed}-group-format='format'
90  -U
91* New diff3 option:
92  -A --show-all
93* diff3 -m now defaults to -A, not -E.
94* diff3 now takes up to three -L or --label options, not just two.
95  If just two options are given, they refer to the first two input files,
96  not the first and third input files.
97* sdiff and diff -y handle incomplete lines.
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99
100User-visible changes in version 2.0:
101
102* Add sdiff and cmp programs.
103* Add Texinfo documentation.
104* Add configure script.
105* Improve diff performance.
106* New diff options:
107-x --exclude
108-X --exclude-from
109-P --unidirectional-new-file
110-W --width
111-y --side-by-side
112--left-column
113--sdiff-merge-assist
114--suppress-common-lines
115* diff options renamed:
116--label renamed from --file-label
117--forward-ed renamed from --reversed-ed
118--paginate renamed from --print
119--entire-new-file renamed from --entire-new-files
120--new-file renamed from --new-files
121--all-text removed
122* New diff3 options:
123-v --version
124* Add long-named equivalents for other diff3 options.
125* diff options -F (--show-function-line) and -I (--ignore-matching-lines)
126  can now be given more than once.
127