NAME

       rmgdiff  -  use  almost any graphical file difference browser to recursively view the differences between
       two directories.

SYNOPSIS

       rmgdiff [-b] [-d] [-g gui] [-n] dir1 dir2

DESCRIPTION

       rmgdiff is an awk script that works in conjunction with almost any graphical file difference browser.  It
       is known to work with mgdiff, tkdiff, and xdiff.

       Unless I am mistaken, most of the GUI difference viewers (except for emacs) do not have built-in  support
       for  recursing  down  two  directories,  but  diff does.  Based on diff's output, rmgdiff decides when to
       invoke the graphical difference viewer.

       In addition, rmgdiff also collates diff's output.  As soon as a new difference is encountered in  a  text
       file,  rmgdiff  will  print to standard output the name of the file that both directories have in common.
       It will then start the GUI and block until the user exits.  As  more  text  files  with  differences  are
       found, the GUI will be started up again.

       In  the  interim,  rmgdiff  will  keep track of differences in binary (non-text) files.  It organizes the
       binary files as executables, shared libraries, static libraries, object files, and other.  Only after all
       the text files have been displayed will rmgdiff report the binary differences.

       It also keeps track of files and directories that diff reports as being only in one directory or another.
       rmgdiff organizes these entries by directory.  Thus, files in one  directory  will  be  reported  in  one
       block, and files that are in the other directory will be reported in a different block.

       In  addition  to  printing  the  name  of  the files that are different, rmgdiff defaults to printing the
       relevant portion of the output from the file command.  This has the unfortunate  side-effect  of  slowing
       things down; however, I find this information to be invaluable.  If you're just looking for a fast way to
       collate diff's output, try piping it into sort instead.

COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

       -b      Sets  the  basic  reporting  mode.   In basic mode, rmgdiff reports only file names.  It does not
               report the file types involved.

       -c      By default, files relating to CVS are ignored by rmgdiff.  If you want to include CVS files,  use
               this option.

       -d      Sets rmgdiff to print way too much debugging information.

       -g gui  Tells  rmgdiff  which  gui  you would like to use for viewing differences.  By default, mgdiff is
               used.  You can also set $RMGDIFF_GUI in your environment, but it  can  be  overridden  with  this
               option.

       -n      rmgdiff will not invoke the gui.  This is useful, if you only want to view the collated output.

AUTHOR

       Paul Serice (paul@serice.net)

                                                                                                     RMGDIFF(1x)