Provided by: imediff_3.3.2-1_all 
NAME
imediff - An interactive fullscreen merge tool for 2 or 3 files
SYNOPSIS
imediff [-a] [-b] [-d] [-f] [-h] [-n] [-t] [-l N] [-o file_out] {file_older} {file_newer}
imediff [-a] [-b] [-c] [-d] [-f] [-g] [-h] [-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
--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. In non-interactive mode, q is applied after the
MACRO. So you need to add -Mw to the command line to write the result to a file. In
TUI mode, TUI is started after the MACRO.
-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>