c07
Showing Differences in Their Context
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Showing Differences in Their Context
Usually, when you are looking at the differences between files, you will also
want to see the parts of the files near the lines that differ, to help you
understand exactly what has changed. These nearby parts of the files are called the context.
GNU
diff provides two output formats that show context around the differing lines: context format and unified format (for more, see Context Format and Unified Format). It can optionally show in which function or section of the file the
differing lines are found (see Showing Which Sections Differences Are in and Showing Alternate File Names.
If you are distributing new versions of files to other people in the form of
diff output, you should use one of the output formats that show context so that
they can apply the diffs even if they have made small changes of their own to the
files. patch can apply the diffs in this case by searching in the files for the lines of
context around the differing lines; if those lines are actually a few lines away
from where the diff says they are, patch can adjust the line numbers accordingly and still apply the diff correctly. See Applying Imperfect Patches for more information on using patch to apply imperfect diffs.
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