path: root/contrib/diff/NEWS

Version 2.8.7 contains no user-visible changes.

User-visible changes in version 2.8.6:

* New diff3 option --strip-trailing-cr.

* With -N and -P, inaccessible empty regular files (the kind of files
  that 'patch' creates to indicate nonexistent backups) are now
  treated as nonexistent when they are in the 'backup' file position.

* If multiple SKIP values are given to cmp, e.g., `cmp -i 10 -i 20',
  cmp now uses the maximal value instead of the last one.

* diff now omits the ".000000000" on hosts that do not support
  fractional time stamps.

Version 2.8.5 was not publicly released.

User-visible changes in version 2.8.4:

* Diff now simply prints "Files A and B differ" instead of "Binary
  files A and B differ".  The message is output if either A or B
  appears to be a binary file, and the old wording was misleading
  because it implied that both files are binary, which is not
  necessarily the case.

User-visible changes in version 2.8.3:

* New locale: en_US.

User-visible changes in version 2.8.2:

* New diff and sdiff option:
  --tabsize=COLUMNS
* If --ignore-space-change or --ignore-all-space is also specified,
  --ignore-blank-lines now considers lines to be empty if they contain
  only white space.
* More platforms now handle multibyte characters correctly when
  excluding files by name (diff -x and -X).
* New locales: hu, pt_BR.

User-visible changes in version 2.8.1:

* Documentation fixes.

User-visible changes in version 2.8:

* cmp and diff now conform to POSIX 1003.1-2001 (IEEE Std 1003.1-2001)
  if the underlying system conforms to POSIX and if the _POSIX2_VERSION
  environment variable is set to 200112.  Conformance removes support
  for `diff -NUM', where NUM is a number.  Use -C NUM or -U NUM instead.
* cmp now supports trailing operands SKIP1 and SKIP2, like BSD cmp.
* cmp -i or --ignore-initial now accepts SKIP1:SKIP2 option value.
* New cmp option: -n or --bytes.
* cmp's old -c or --print-chars option has been renamed;
  use -b or --print-bytes instead.
* cmp now outputs "byte" rather than "char" outside the POSIX locale.
* cmp -l's index column width now adjusts to fit larger (or smaller) files.
* cmp -l -s and cmp -s -l are not allowed.  Use cmp -s or cmp -l instead.
* diff uses ISO 8601 style time stamps for output times (e.g. "2001-11-23
  16:44:36.875702460 -0800") unless in the C or POSIX locale and the
  -c style is specified.
* diff's -I and -F options use the regexp syntax of grep, not of Emacs.
* diff now accepts multiple context arguments, and uses their maximum value.
* New diff and sdiff options:
  -E  --ignore-tab-expansion
  --strip-trailing-cr
* New diff options:
  --from-file=FILE, --to-file=FILE
  --ignore-file-name-case
  --no-ignore-file-name-case
* New diff3 and sdiff option:
  --diff-program=PROGRAM
* The following diff options are still accepted, but are no longer documented.
  They may be withdrawn in future releases.
  -h (omit; it has no effect)
  -H (use --speed-large-files instead)
  -L (use --label instead)
  -P (use --unidirectional-new-file instead)
  --inhibit-hunk-merge (omit; it has no effect)
* Recursive diffs now sort file names according to the LC_COLLATE locale
  category if possible, instead of using native byte comparison.
* Recursive diffs now detect and report directory loops.
* Diff printf specs can now use the "0" and "'" flags.
* The new sdiff interactive command `ed' precedes each version with a header.
* On 64-bit hosts, files larger than 2 GB can be compared.
* Some internationalization support has been added, but multibyte locales
  are still not completely supported yet.
* Some diagnostics have been reworded slightly for consistency.
  Also, `diff -D FOO' now outputs `/* ! FOO */' instead of `/* not FOO */'.
* The `patch' part of the manual now describes `patch' version 2.5.4.
* Man pages are now distributed and installed.
* There is support for DJGPP; see the 'ms' subdirectory and the files
  m4/dos.m4 and */setmode.*.


User-visible changes in version 2.7:

* New diff option: --binary (useful only on non-POSIX hosts)
* diff -b and -w now ignore line incompleteness; -B no longer does this.
* cmp -c now uses locale to decide which output characters to quote.
* Help and version messages are reorganized.


User-visible changes in version 2.6:

* New cmp, diff, diff3, sdiff option: --help
* A new heuristic for diff greatly reduces the time needed to compare
  large input files that contain many differences.
* Partly as a result, GNU diff's output is not exactly the same as before.
  Usually it is a bit smaller, but sometimes it is a bit larger.


User-visible changes in version 2.5:

* New cmp option: -v --version


User-visible changes in version 2.4:

* New cmp option: --ignore-initial=BYTES
* New diff3 option: -T --initial-tab
* New diff option: --line-format=FORMAT
* New diff group format specifications:
  <PRINTF_SPEC>[eflmnEFLMN]
      A printf spec followed by one of the following letters
      causes the integer corresponding to that letter to be
      printed according to the printf specification.
      E.g. `%5df' prints the number of the first line in the
      group in the old file using the "%5d" format.
	e: line number just before the group in old file; equals f - 1
	f: first line number in group in the old file
	l: last line number in group in the old file
	m: line number just after the group in old file; equals l + 1
	n: number of lines in group in the old file; equals l - f + 1
	E, F, L, M, N: likewise, for lines in the new file
  %(A=B?T:E)
      If A equals B then T else E.  A and B are each either a decimal
      constant or a single letter interpreted as above.  T and E are
      arbitrary format strings.  This format spec is equivalent to T if
      A's value equals B's; otherwise it is equivalent to E.  For
      example, `%(N=0?no:%dN) line%(N=1?:s)' is equivalent to `no lines'
      if N (the number of lines in the group in the the new file) is 0,
      to `1 line' if N is 1, and to `%dN lines' otherwise.
  %c'C'
      where C is a single character, stands for the character C.  C may not
      be a backslash or an apostrophe.  E.g. %c':' stands for a colon.
  %c'\O'
      where O is a string of 1, 2, or 3 octal digits, stands for the
      character with octal code O.  E.g. %c'\0' stands for a null character.
* New diff line format specifications:
  <PRINTF_SPEC>n
      The line number, printed with <PRINTF_SPEC>.
      E.g. `%5dn' prints the line number with a "%5d" format.
  %c'C'
  %c'\O'
      The character C, or with octal code O, as above.
* Supported <PRINTF_SPEC>s have the same meaning as with printf, but must
  match the extended regular expression %-*[0-9]*(\.[0-9]*)?[doxX].
* The format spec %0 introduced in version 2.1 has been removed, since it
  is incompatible with printf specs like %02d.  To represent a null char,
  use %c'\0' instead.
* cmp and diff now conform to POSIX 1003.2-1992 (ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993)
  if the underlying system conforms to POSIX:
  - Some messages' wordings are changed in minor ways.
  - ``White space'' is now whatever C's `isspace' says it is.
  - When comparing directories, if `diff' finds a file that is not a regular
    file or a directory, it reports the file's type instead of diffing it.
    (As usual, it follows symbolic links first.)
  - When signaled, sdiff exits with the signal's status, not with status 2.
* Now portable to hosts where int, long, pointer, etc. are not all the same
  size.
* `cmp - -' now works like `diff - -'.


User-visible changes in version 2.3:

* New diff option: --horizon-lines=lines


User-visible changes in version 2.1:

* New diff options:
  --{old,new,unchanged}-line-format='format'
  --{old,new,unchanged,changed}-group-format='format'
  -U
* New diff3 option:
  -A --show-all
* diff3 -m now defaults to -A, not -E.
* diff3 now takes up to three -L or --label options, not just two.
  If just two options are given, they refer to the first two input files,
  not the first and third input files.
* sdiff and diff -y handle incomplete lines.


User-visible changes in version 2.0:

* Add sdiff and cmp programs.
* Add Texinfo documentation.
* Add configure script.
* Improve diff performance.
* New diff options:
-x --exclude
-X --exclude-from
-P --unidirectional-new-file
-W --width
-y --side-by-side
--left-column
--sdiff-merge-assist
--suppress-common-lines
* diff options renamed:
--label renamed from --file-label
--forward-ed renamed from --reversed-ed
--paginate renamed from --print
--entire-new-file renamed from --entire-new-files
--new-file renamed from --new-files
--all-text removed
* New diff3 options:
-v --version
* Add long-named equivalents for other diff3 options.
* diff options -F (--show-function-line) and -I (--ignore-matching-lines)
  can now be given more than once.



Copyright (C) 1993, 1994, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Diffutils.

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that they will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.