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MERGE(1)                                                                                            MERGE(1)



NAME
       merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS
       merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION
       merge  incorporates all changes that lead from file2 to file3 into file1.  The result ordinarily goes
       into file1.  merge is useful for combining separate changes to an original.   Suppose  file2  is  the
       original, and both file1 and file3 are modifications of file2.  Then merge combines both changes.

       A  conflict  occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common segment of lines.  If a conflict
       is found, merge normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>>  lines.
       A typical conflict will look like this:

              <<<<<<< file A
              lines in file A
              =======
              lines in file B
              >>>>>>> file B

       If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives.

OPTIONS
       -A     Output  conflicts  using  the  -A  style  of diff3(1), if supported by diff3.  This merges all
              changes leading from file2 to file3 into file1, and generates the most verbose output.

       -E, -e These options specify conflict styles that generate less information than  -A.   See  diff3(1)
              for details.  The default is -E.  With -e, merge does not warn about conflicts.

       -L label
              This  option  may  be given up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in place of the
              corresponding file names in conflict reports.  That is,  merge -L x -L y -L z a b c  generates
              output that looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of from files a, b and c.

       -p     Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.

       -q     Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.  -V Print 's version number.

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

IDENTIFICATION
       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 1.1; Release Date: 1999/04/23.
       Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
       Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.

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

BUGS
       It  normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were text, but merge tries to do it
       anyway.



GNU                                              1999/04/23                                         MERGE(1)