FILCMP is a program to compare two files and report on the differences between them. Also, if desired, these differences can be used to update a 3rd file (see the UPDATE command). FILCMP>? A command, one of the following: COMPARE EXIT HELP INFORMATION SET TAKE UPDATE During an COMPARE or UPDATE command the following control characters may be used: ^A -Gives the current status of COMPARE or UPDATE. It gives the number of changes found, the current disk page the file is processing and the percentage of each file processed. ^E -Aborts the COMPARE or UPDATE command ^X -Aborts the COMPARE or UPDATE command. It differs from ^E only if wildcards had been used in the file specs for the COMPARE command - ^X aborts only the current comparison while ^E will abort all comparisons. COMPARE (older file) __ (against newer file) __ (outputing differences to) __ Compares one file with another and reports on the differences. If you do not give an output file then the differences will be displayed on your terminal. The default file type for the output file is ".CMP". The following switches can be used at the end of the command: /LINES:3 -The number of lines that must be found in common between two files before the files are considered to match up again. The default value is 3. /MAX-LINES:1000 -The maximum number of lines the program will search forward in each files when looking for the place that the files start to match up again. The default value is 1000. If the files don't match up after searching ahead this far then FILCMP will give up. If you set this value to zero "0" then FILCMP will search until the end of file before giving up. /QUICK -Quick mode. Using this switch causes FILCMP to report only whether or not the files are different. It will not elaborate on the type or number of differences. /UPDATE-FORMAT -This switch controls the format of the output file. It must be used if you later plan to use the output file with the UPDATE command. /EXE -This switch allows the user to compare two EXE files. The program only reports whether the files are different or not. /IGNORE -This switch instructs the program to ignore spaces, tabs, nulls, and multiple blank lines when comparing two ASCII files. /NO: -Use with one of the above keywords to turn off the switch. (NOTE: "/NO:MAX-LINES" is the same as setting "/MAX-LINES:0") UPDATE (source file) __ (using changes in) __.CMP (giving) __ This command will update a file using the changes in "__.CMP". This file is the output file produced by the COMPARE command using the "/UPDATE-FORMAT" switch. For example, the ability to take the differences between two file and UPDATE a 3rd file is useful to reapply the local site patches to a new version of software. You would COMPARE the original source file supplied by the vendor against the most receint site-modified source file to get the list of changes. Then you could use the UPDATE command to apply these changes to the newer verion of the vendor's source file. The update file produced by the COMPARE command may be modified by any edit program. Just be careful not to alter any lines containing "$>>>>>>>>Change" or "$>>>File" because these lines are used to delimit the updates. The UPDATE command works by replacing one set of lines with another. The lines between "$>>>File 1" and "$>>>File 2" will be searched for in the source file. If this group of lines is found in the source file then they will be replaced by the lines found between the "$>>>File 2" and the next "$>>>>>>>>Change") If desired, you may also use, or remove, the special "<>" and "<>" markers in the update file. These markers are symbolic of the BEGINNING and END of the file. Of course, the "<>" marker may only be used at the beginning of the the text for the 1st change in the update file. Corrispondingly the "<>" may only be used at the end of the text for the last change in the update file. /VERIFY -Causes UPDATE to verify that the replacements made to the source file are unique - i.e. that the text between "$>>>File 1" and "$>>>File 2" occurs only once in the source file (NOTE: Only the region from the end of the last update to the end of the source file is checked)