Hardened Linux From Scratch - Version SVN-20080603

Chapter 6. Installing Basic System Software

6.35. Diffutils-2.8.7

The Diffutils package contains programs that show the differences between files or directories.

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/hlfs/wiki/diffutils

6.35.1. Installation of Diffutils

This patch modifies the sdiff to use mkstemp(3) instead of tmpname(3). This patch was partially accepted in diffutils-cvs, but tmpname(3) was preferred because it is more portable. The thread starts here: http://sources.redhat.com/ml/bug-gnu-utils/2000-12/msg00163.html: 

patch -Np1 -i ../diffutils-2.8.7-hardened_tmp-1.patch

Prepare Diffutils for compilation: 

./configure --prefix=/usr

Compile the package: 

make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Install the package: 

make install

6.35.2. Contents of Diffutils

Installed programs: cmp, diff, diff3, and sdiff

Short Descriptions

cmp

Compares two files and reports whether or in which bytes they differ

diff

Compares two files or directories and reports which lines in the files differ

diff3

Compares three files line by line

sdiff

Merges two files and interactively outputs the results