MERGE(1)		    General Commands Manual		      MERGE(1)



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 origi-
       nal, 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 seg-
       ment of lines.  If a conflict is found, merge normally outputs a	 warn-
       ing  and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines.  A typi-
       cal 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 infor-
	      mation 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 '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: 5.7; Release Date: 1995/06/01.
       Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
       Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.

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

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



GNU				  1995/06/01			      MERGE(1)