MERGE(1) MachTen Programmer’s Manual MERGE(1)

NAME
merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS
merge [ -L label1 [ -L label3 ] ] [ -p ] [ -q ] file1
file2 file3

DESCRIPTION
merge incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to
file3 into file1. The result goes to standard output if
-p is present, into file1 otherwise. merge is useful for
combining separate changes to an original. Suppose file2
is the original, and both file1 and file3 are modifica-
tions of file2. Then merge combines both changes.

An overlap occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in
a common segment of lines. On a few older hosts where
diff3 does not support the -E option, merge does not
detect overlaps, and merely supplies the changed lines
from file3. On most hosts, if overlaps occur, merge out-
puts a message (unless the -q option is given), and
includes both alternatives in the result. The alterna-
tives are delimited as follows:

<<<<<<< file1
lines in file1
=======
lines in file3
>>>>>>> file3

If there are overlaps, the user should edit the result and
delete one of the alternatives. If the -L label1 and
-L label3 options are given, the labels are output in
place of the names file1 and file3 in overlap reports.

DIAGNOSTICS
Exit status is 0 for no overlaps, 1 for some overlaps, 2
for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION
Author: Walter F. Tichy.
Revision Number: 5.3; Release Date: 1991/02/28.
Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy.
Copyright (C) 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert.

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

GNU 1991/02/28 1