merge.1 revision 22996
1.de Id 2.ds Rv \\$3 3.ds Dt \\$4 4.. 5.Id $Id$ 6.TH MERGE 1 \*(Dt GNU 7.SH NAME 8merge \- three-way file merge 9.SH SYNOPSIS 10.B merge 11[ 12.I "options" 13] 14.I "file1 file2 file3" 15.SH DESCRIPTION 16.B merge 17incorporates all changes that lead from 18.I file2 19to 20.I file3 21into 22.IR file1 . 23The result ordinarily goes into 24.IR file1 . 25.B merge 26is useful for combining separate changes to an original. Suppose 27.I file2 28is the original, and both 29.I file1 30and 31.I file3 32are modifications of 33.IR file2 . 34Then 35.B merge 36combines both changes. 37.PP 38A conflict occurs if both 39.I file1 40and 41.I file3 42have changes in a common segment of lines. 43If a conflict is found, 44.B merge 45normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with 46.B <<<<<<< 47and 48.B >>>>>>> 49lines. 50A typical conflict will look like this: 51.LP 52.RS 53.nf 54.BI <<<<<<< " file A" 55.I "lines in file A" 56.B "=======" 57.I "lines in file B" 58.BI >>>>>>> " file B" 59.RE 60.fi 61.LP 62If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the 63alternatives. 64.SH OPTIONS 65.TP 66.B \-A 67Output conflicts using the 68.B \-A 69style of 70.BR diff3 (1), 71if supported by 72.BR diff3 . 73This merges all changes leading from 74.I file2 75to 76.I file3 77into 78.IR file1 , 79and generates the most verbose output. 80.TP 81\f3\-E\fP, \f3\-e\fP 82These options specify conflict styles that generate less information 83than 84.BR \-A . 85See 86.BR diff3 (1) 87for details. 88The default is 89.BR \-E . 90With 91.BR \-e , 92.B merge 93does not warn about conflicts. 94.TP 95.BI \-L " label" 96This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels 97to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict reports. 98That is, 99.B "merge\ \-L\ x\ \-L\ y\ \-L\ z\ a\ b\ c" 100generates output that looks like it came from files 101.BR x , 102.B y 103and 104.B z 105instead of from files 106.BR a , 107.B b 108and 109.BR c . 110.TP 111.BI \-p 112Send results to standard output instead of overwriting 113.IR file1 . 114.TP 115.BI \-q 116Quiet; do not warn about conflicts. 117.BI \-V 118Print \*r's version number. 119.SH DIAGNOSTICS 120Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble. 121.SH IDENTIFICATION 122Author: Walter F. Tichy. 123.br 124Manual Page Revision: \*(Rv; Release Date: \*(Dt. 125.br 126Copyright \(co 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy. 127.br 128Copyright \(co 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert. 129.SH SEE ALSO 130diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1). 131.SH BUGS 132It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were text, but 133.B merge 134tries to do it anyway. 135.br 136