GENDIFF(1)		    General Commands Manual		    GENDIFF(1)



NAME
       gendiff - utility to aid in error-free diff file generation

SYNOPSIS
       gendiff <directory> <diff-extension>

DESCRIPTION
       gendiff	is a rather simple script which aids in generating a diff file
       from a single directory.	 It takes a directory name and a  "diff-exten-
       sion"  as  its  only  arguments.	 The diff extension should be a unique
       sequence of characters added to the end	of  all	 original,  unmodified
       files.	The  output of the program is a diff file which may be applied
       with the patch program to recreate the changes.

       The usual sequence of events for creating a diff is to create two iden-
       tical directories, make changes in one directory, and then use the diff
       utility to create a list of differences between the two.	 Using gendiff
       eliminates  the	need  for the extra, original and unmodified directory
       copy.  Instead, only the individual files that are modified need to  be
       saved.

       Before  editing a file, copy the file, appending the extension you have
       chosen to the filename.	I.e. if you were going	to  edit  somefile.cpp
       and have chosen the extension "fix", copy it to somefile.cpp.fix before
       editing it.  Then edit the first copy (somefile.cpp).

       After editing all the files you need to edit in this fashion, enter the
       directory one level above where your source code resides, and then type

	   $ gendiff somedirectory .fix > mydiff-fix.patch

       You  should  redirect  the output to a file (as illustrated) unless you
       want to see the results on stdout.


SEE ALSO
       diff(1), patch(1)


AUTHOR
       Marc Ewing <marc@redhat.com>



4th Berkeley Distribution	Mon Jan 10 2000			    GENDIFF(1)