NAME

       merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS

       merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION

       merge  incorporates  all  changes  that  lead  from file2 to file3 into file1.  The result
       ordinarily goes into file1.   merge  is  useful  for  combining  separate  changes  to  an
       original.   Suppose  file2  is the original, and both file1 and file3 are modifications of
       file2.  Then merge combines both changes.

       A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common segment of lines.  If a
       conflict is found, merge normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<<
       and >>>>>>> lines.  A typical conflict will look like this:

              <<<<<<< file A
              lines in file A
              =======
              lines in file B
              >>>>>>> file B

       If there  are  conflicts,  the  user  should  edit  the  result  and  delete  one  of  the
       alternatives.

OPTIONS

       -A     Output  conflicts  using  the  -A  style  of diff3(1), if supported by diff3.  This
              merges all changes leading from file2 to file3 into file1, and generates  the  most
              verbose output.

       -E, -e These  options specify conflict styles that generate less information than -A.  See
              diff3(1) for details.  The default is -E.  With  -e,  merge  does  not  warn  about
              conflicts.

       -L label
              This  option  may  be  given  up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in
              place  of  the  corresponding  file  names   in   conflict   reports.    That   is,
              merge -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output that looks like it came from files x, y
              and z instead of from files a, b and c.

       -p     Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.

       -q     Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.

       -V     Print RCS's version number.

DIAGNOSTICS

       Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 5.9.4; Release Date: 2019-12-31.
       Copyright © 2010-2015 Thien-Thi Nguyen.
       Copyright © 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.
       Copyright © 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.

SEE ALSO

       diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).

       The full documentation for RCS is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info(1) and  RCS
       programs are properly installed at your site, the command

              info rcs

       should give you access to the complete manual.  Additionally, the RCS homepage:

              http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/

       has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc.

BUGS

       It  normally  does  not  make  sense to merge binary files as if they were text, but merge
       tries to do it anyway.