.de Id .ds Rv \\$3 .ds Dt \\$4 .. .Id $Id: merge.1,v 5.3 1991/02/28 19:18:45 eggert Exp $ .TH MERGE 1 \*(Dt GNU .SH NAME merge \- three-way file merge .SH SYNOPSIS .B merge [ .B \-L .I label1 [ .B \-L .I label3 ] ] [ .B \-p ] [ .B \-q ] .I "file1 file2 file3" .SH DESCRIPTION .B merge incorporates all changes that lead from .I file2 to .I file3 into .IR file1 . The result goes to standard output if .B \-p is present, into .I file1 otherwise. .B merge is useful for combining separate changes to an original. Suppose .I file2 is the original, and both .I file1 and .I file3 are modifications of .IR file2 . Then .B merge combines both changes. .PP An overlap occurs if both .I file1 and .I file3 have changes in a common segment of lines. On a few older hosts where .B diff3 does not support the .B \-E option, .B merge does not detect overlaps, and merely supplies the changed lines from .I file3. On most hosts, if overlaps occur, .B merge outputs a message (unless the .B \-q option is given), and includes both alternatives in the result. The alternatives are delimited as follows: .LP .RS .nf .BI .I "lines in file1" .B "=======" .I "lines in file3" .BI >>>>>>> " file3" .RE .fi .LP If there are overlaps, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives. If the .BI \-L "\ label1" and .BI \-L "\ label3" options are given, the labels are output in place of the names .I file1 and .I file3 in overlap reports. .SH DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 for no overlaps, 1 for some overlaps, 2 for trouble. .SH IDENTIFICATION Author: Walter F. Tichy. .br Revision Number: \*(Rv; Release Date: \*(Dt. .br Copyright \(co 1982, 1988, 1989 by Walter F. Tichy. .br Copyright \(co 1990, 1991 by Paul Eggert. .SH SEE ALSO diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).
