NAME

       imediff - An interactive fullscreen merge tool for 2 or 3 files

SYNOPSIS

       imediff [-a] [-b] [-d] [-f] [-h] [-m] [-n] [-t] [-l N] [-o file_out] {file_older}
               {file_newer}

       imediff [-a] [-b] [-c] [-d] [-f] [-g] [-h] [-m] [-n] [-t] [-l N] [-o file_out]
               {file_yours} {file_base} {file_theirs}

DESCRIPTION

       Merge two (slightly different) files with an optional common base file interactively with
       a user friendly fullscreen interface in the full screen text terminal mode.

       imediff shows the differences of given two files (in color if the terminal supports them),
       lets you scroll the file and toggle changes between older and newer version for each chunk
       of difference. You can also select line diff and character wdiff mode for display. If you
       wish to make manual changes, you can edit each chunk with editor. The result of merge
       operation is saved in file_out.

       Additionally, you can customize your choice of editor via $EDITOR or ~/.imediff. The
       default editor is /usr/bin/editor.

       Removed lines are shown in reversed '???' as a placeholder, so you see that and you can
       select them. While it takes one line on display, it is naturally not saved into the output
       file.

       To see the key binding, hit h in the main imediff screen.

       To see the tutorial, hit H in the main imediff screen or simply start the imediff command
       without arguments.

       The program exits with status 0 if the changes were saved, 1 if the merging was aborted
       and 2 if the parameters were invalid.

OPTIONS

       -o file_output, --output=file_output
           Write output to a given file. If missing, STDERR is used.

       -l N, --linerule=N
           Line alignment fuzzy matching rule. (Partial string matches are tried on the top of
           this pre-filtering)

           •   N=0: Line alignment after stripping leading and tailing whitespaces

           •   N=1: Line alignment after stripping all whitespaces

           •   N=2: Line alignment after stripping all whitespaces and quotation marks (default)

           •   N=3: Line alignment after stripping all non-alphanumerics

           •   N=10: Line alignment after stripping leading and tailing whitespaces and
               lowecasing

           •   N=11: Line alignment after stripping all whitespaces and lowecasing

           •   N=12: Line alignment after stripping all whitespaces and quotation marks and
               lowecasing

           •   N=13: Line alignment after stripping all non-alphanumerics and lowecasing

       -m, --mode
           Display mode column.

       --mono
           Force monochrome display.

       --sloppy
           Allow one to save unresolved contents.

       -n, --non-interactive
           Non-interactive mode.

       --macro=MACRO
           Pre-load MACRO to keyboard input. MACRO key binding is the same as the normal keyboard
           input and can be remapped by the configuration file. The only exception is ':' which
           means end MACRO input and process keyboard input interactively.

       -a
           Start with version A (={file_older} or {file_yours}).

       -b
           Start with version B (={file_newer} or {file_base}).

       -c
           Start with version C (={file_theirs}) for 3 files.

       -d
           Start with diff by line between version A and version B for 2 files. (default for 2
           files)

           Start with diff by line between version A and version C while using version B as base
           version for 3 files.

       -f
           Start with wdiff by character between version A and version B for 2 files.

           Start with wdiff by character between version A and version C while using version B as
           base version for 3 files.

       -g
           This is the default starting mode for 3 files. For the cleanly merged resolved
           portion, display wdiff by character between version A and version C while using
           version B as base version. For the unresolved portion, display diff by line, instead.

       -h, --help
           Show summary of options and exit.

       -t, --template
           Create (or overwrite) ~/.imediff with default values.

       -V, --version
           Show version and exit.

KEYBOARD COMMANDS

       The following keyboard commands are available in the editor as default.

       w, x
           Write and eXit if merge is resolved. (default behavior)

           Write and eXit unconditionally. (when --sloppy specified)

       q, ctrl+c
           Exit without saving.

       home, t, end, z
           Jump to start or end of chunks.

       h
           Show commands.

       shift+h
           Show tutorial.

       s, ?
           Show the state of the merge.

       down, j, up, k
           Move scope of the display for 1 line.

       left, right
           Move scope of the display for 1 column.

       page up, page down
           Move scope of the display for screenfull lines.

       enter
           Toggle mode of display for a selected chunk.

       n, space
           Jump to next changed chunk.

       N, tab
           Jump to next unresolved chunk (mode "d" or "f").

       p, backspace
           Jump to previous changed chunk.

       P, back-tab
           Jump to previous unresolved chunk (mode "d" or "f").

       a
           Set mode of the current chunk to "a" to display version A.

       b
           Set mode of the current chunk to "b" to display version B.

       c
           Set mode of the current chunk to "c" to display version C for 3 files.

       d
           Set mode of the current chunk to "d" to display diff by line.

       e
           Set mode of the current chunk to "e" to display editor buffer if available.

       f
           Set mode of the current chunk to "f" to display wdiff by character. If cleanly merged,
           mode is set to "g" instead.

       g
           This causes automatic merge efforts on a chunk for 3 files in the following order.

           If the editor result buffer has content, mode is set to "e".

           If a chunk is resolved cleanly, mode is set to "a", "c", or "g". This overrides
           previous manual settings such as "a", "b", or "c".

           If a chunk isn't resolved cleanly, mode is left as mode "g" or "f".

       shift+a
           Apply "a" to all chunks.

       shift+b
           Apply "b" to all chunks.

       shift+c
           Apply "c" to all chunks.

       shift+d
           Apply "d" to all chunks.

       shift+e
           Apply "e" to all chunks.

       shift+f
           Apply "f" to all chunks.

       shift+g
           Apply "g" to all chunks.

       m
           Launch external editor on the current chunk, save its result to the editor buffer, and
           set its mode to "e".

       shift+m
           Remove the editor buffer of the current chunk when its mode is "e".

FILE

       The key choices of the above keyboard commands can be configured in ~/.imediff which is
       created at the first execution of this command. The left side is the keys described in
       this manpage. The right side is your configuration choices. The current settings can be
       confirmed by the 'h' key dialog.

SEE ALSO

       sdiff (1), diff (1), merge (1), diff3 (1).

COPYRIGHT

       This manual page as well as the program itself was written by Jarno Elonen <elonen@iki.fi>
       and Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>. Unlike the program itself, which is licensed under the
       GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 (or any later version, at your option), this
       document has been placed into the Public Domain.

AUTHORS

       Jarno Elonen <elonen@iki.fi>
           Original author for 2 file merge in python2

       Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>
           Rewrite author for 2 and 3 file merge in python3

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright © 2003-2006, 2018 Jarno Elonen <elonen@iki.fi>, Osamu Aoki <osamu@debian.org>