Difference between "diff" and "sdiff" commands in Unix

Hi everyone, in this blog post, I will be discussing about the difference between "diff" and "sdiff" commands in Unix. This is my first post about Unix.

diff command

• diff command will compare two files and prints the difference between the 2 files.
• The format of diff command is diff file1 file2.

sdiff command

• sdiff command will compare two files side by side.
• The format of sdiff command is sdiff file1 file2.
• The contents of files are displayed side by side with a marker denoting the difference between each files.

Some of the important markers used in sdiff are as follows:

• | - denotes the 2 files differ in the line completely.
• < - only the first file contains the line.
• > - only the second file contains the line.

The better way to depict the difference is by showing examples. Here, I am comparing 2 files which are named as "ipl_teams_2008.txt" and "ipl_teams_2015.txt". Let's see the contents of the files.

ipl_teams_2008.txt

ipl_teams_2015.txt

The 2 files only differ in line 4. In ipl_teams_2008.txt, it is Deccan Chargers at line 4 and in ipl_teams_2015.txt, it is Sunrisers Hyderabad.

On performing diff and sdiff commands on these files, the output will look like this:

1) diff ipl_teams_2008.txt ipl_teams_2015.txt

The output shows only the line number, where the files differ.

2) sdiff ipl_teams_2008.txt ipl_teams_2015.txt

The output is shown side by side and in line 4, the marker '|' appears stating both the lines are completely different.

There can be many examples showing the difference of 2 files using sdiff command. If you have access to an unix terminal, I would suggest to practice more regarding various sdiff comparisons.

Please comment below if you have any doubts regarding my blog. Please refer some of the interesting topics in my blog.

Links to some interesting posts in my blog

1. Java program to get next greater element in an array.
2. Removing duplicates and ordering a list using java.
3. Maven project which adds another project as a dependency.