p4 diff2
Synopsis
Compare one set of depot files to another and display the difference. The source and the target files to be compared can be specified on the command line or through a branch view.
Syntax
p4 [g-opts
] diff2 [-doptions
] [-Od -q -t -u]file1
[rev
]file2
[rev
] p4 [g-opts
] diff2 [-doptions
] [-Od -q -t -u] -bbranch
[[fromfile
[rev
]]tofile
[rev
]] p4 [g-opts
] diff2 [-doptions
] [-Od -q -t -u] [-Sstream
] [-Pparent
] [[fromfile
[rev
]]tofile
[rev
]]
Description
p4 diff2
uses the Perforce service’s built-in diff routine to
compare two file revisions from the depot. These revisions are usually
two versions of the same file, but they can be revisions of entirely
separate files. If no file revision is explicitly provided with the file
argument, the head revision is used.
- If you specify no arguments, the current stream is diffed against its parent stream.
- If you specify a filename, it diffs that file in the current stream against its the same file in the parent stream.
p4 diff2
does not use the diff program specified by the
environment variable P4DIFF
. The diff algorithm used by
p4 diff2
runs on the machine hosting the shared Perforce
service, and always uses the service’s built-in diff routine.
You can specify file patterns as arguments in place of specific files,
with or without revision specifiers; this causes Perforce to perform
multiple diffs for each pair of files that match the given pattern. If
you invoke p4 diff2
with file patterns, escape the file patterns
from the OS shell by using quotes or backslashes, and be sure that the
wildcards in the two file patterns match.
Perforce presents the diffs in UNIX diff format, prepended with a header. The header is formatted as follows:
==== file1 (filetype1) - file2 (filetype2) ==== summary
The possible values and meanings of summary are:
content
: the file revisions' contents are different,types
: the revisions' contents are identical, but the filetypes are different,identical
: the revisions' contents and filetypes are identical.
If either file1 or file2 does not exist at the specified revision,
the header displays the summary as <none>
.
Options
|
Use a branch mapping to diff files in two branched codelines. The
files that are compared can be limited by file patterns in either
the |
|
Runs the diff routine with one of a subset of the standard UNIX diff options. See Usage Notes for a listing of these options. |
|
Limit output to only those files that differ. |
|
Quiet diff. Display only the header; if file1 and file2 are
identical, display only " |
|
Diff a stream with its parent. To diff the stream with a stream other
than its configured parent, specify |
|
Diff the file revisions even if the file(s) are not of type |
|
Generate unified output format, showing added and deleted lines with
sufficient context for compatibility with the |
|
See “Global Options”. |
Usage Notes
Can File Arguments Use Revision Specifier? | Can File Arguments Use Revision Range? | Minimal Access Level Required |
---|---|---|
Yes |
No |
|
-
The diff options supported by
p4 diff2
are:Option Name -dn
RCS output format, showing additions and deletions made to the file and associated line ranges.
-dc[
num
]context output format, showing line number ranges and num lines of context around the changes.
-ds
summary output format, showing only the number of chunks and lines added, deleted, or changed.
-du[
num
]unified output format, showing added and deleted lines with num lines of context, in a form compatible with the
patch(1)
utility.-dl
ignore line-ending (CR/LF) convention when finding diffs
-db
ignore changes made within whitespace; this option implies
-dl
.-dw
ignore whitespace altogether; this option implies
-dl
. -
To pass more than one option to the diff routine, group them together. For example:
$ p4 diff2 -dub
file1
file2
specifies a unified diff that ignores changes in whitespace.
- The header line of a unified diff produced with the
-du
option forpatch(1)
use displays the diffed files in Perforce syntax, not local syntax. -
When
p4 diff2
is used to diffbinary
files, the line... files differ ...
is printed if they are not identical.
- The option
-b
may seem incorrect at first. Because the branch mapping mapsbranch[[fromfile[rev]]
tofile[rev]]
fromfiles
totofiles
, why would you specify bothfromfile
andtofile
file patterns? You wouldn’t, but this syntax allows you to specify afromfile
file pattern and atofile
revision, or afromfile
revision and atofile
file pattern. - RCS keywords within files are not expanded with
p4 diff2
.
Examples
|
Compare the first revision of file |
|
Diff the revision of |
p4 diff2 //depot/rel1/... //depot/rel2/...#4 |
Compare the head revisions of all files under |
p4 diff2 //depot/rel1/* //depot/rel2/... |
Not allowed. The wildcards in each file pattern must match. |
p4 diff2 -b branch2 //depot/rel2/...#2 @50 |
Compare the second revision of the files in
|