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5.Id $FreeBSD: releng/10.2/gnu/usr.bin/rcs/merge/merge.1 50472 1999-08-27 23:37:10Z peter $
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7.TH MERGE 1 \*(Dt GNU
8.SH NAME
9merge \- three-way file merge
10.SH SYNOPSIS
11.B merge
12[
13.I "options"
14]
15.I "file1 file2 file3"
16.SH DESCRIPTION
17.B merge
18incorporates all changes that lead from
19.I file2
20to
21.I file3
22into
23.IR file1 .
24The result ordinarily goes into
25.IR file1 .
26.B merge
27is useful for combining separate changes to an original.  Suppose
28.I file2
29is the original, and both
30.I file1
31and
32.I file3
33are modifications of
34.IR file2 .
35Then
36.B merge
37combines both changes.
38.PP
39A conflict occurs if both
40.I file1
41and
42.I file3
43have changes in a common segment of lines.
44If a conflict is found,
45.B merge
46normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with
47.B <<<<<<<
48and
49.B >>>>>>>
50lines.
51A typical conflict will look like this:
52.LP
53.RS
54.nf
55.BI <<<<<<< " file A"
56.I "lines in file A"
57.B "======="
58.I "lines in file B"
59.BI >>>>>>> " file B"
60.RE
61.fi
62.LP
63If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the
64alternatives.
65.SH OPTIONS
66.TP
67.B \-A
68Output conflicts using the
69.B \-A
70style of
71.BR diff3 (1),
72if supported by
73.BR diff3 .
74This merges all changes leading from
75.I file2
76to
77.I file3
78into
79.IR file1 ,
80and generates the most verbose output.
81.TP
82\f3\-E\fP, \f3\-e\fP
83These options specify conflict styles that generate less information
84than
85.BR \-A .
86See
87.BR diff3 (1)
88for details.
89The default is
90.BR \-E .
91With
92.BR \-e ,
93.B merge
94does not warn about conflicts.
95.TP
96.BI \-L " label"
97This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels
98to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict reports.
99That is,
100.B "merge\ \-L\ x\ \-L\ y\ \-L\ z\ a\ b\ c"
101generates output that looks like it came from files
102.BR x ,
103.B y
104and
105.B z
106instead of from files
107.BR a ,
108.B b
109and
110.BR c .
111.TP
112.BI \-p
113Send results to standard output instead of overwriting
114.IR file1 .
115.TP
116.BI \-q
117Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.
118.TP
119.BI \-V
120Print \*r's version number.
121.SH DIAGNOSTICS
122Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble.
123.SH IDENTIFICATION
124Author: Walter F. Tichy.
125.br
126Manual Page Revision: \*(Rv; Release Date: \*(Dt.
127.br
128Copyright \(co 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
129.br
130Copyright \(co 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
131.SH SEE ALSO
132diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).
133.SH BUGS
134It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were text, but
135.B merge
136tries to do it anyway.
137.br
138