xenial (1) merge.1.gz

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: 2015-06-21.
       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.