The menu found on the Preferences dialog displays the Diff, Format, Options and Exclude tabbed forms. These forms can be used to configure the behavioural properties of the Diff program.
Adjust options for the Output Format and number of Lines of Context.
Output Format
The context output format adds several lines of context around the lines that differ.
diff can produce commands that direct the ed text editor to change the first file into the second file. Historically, this was the only output mode suitable for automatically editing one file into another. With the advent of patch this option is hardly ever used.
The normal output format displays differing lines without any surrounding lines of context.
The RCS output format is designed specifically for use by the Revision Control System (RCS). Like Ed format, this format is rarely used since the patch program was introduced.
The unified output format is a variation on the context format. It is considered better than context because the output is more compact than that of context as it omits redundant context lines.
Use the side by side output format which displays files listed in two columns with a gutter between them. This option is only available from the Diff Options dialog (see the section called “Creating a Diff”).
Lines of Context
When performing a diff with context or unified output format use this parameter to control the number of context lines included.
The Options tab form allows configuration of the options supported by the diff program.
General
Forces diff to display changes in case, punctuation, space, etc. when checked.
Switches diff to process files with high-speed when checked.
Lower and Uppercase character changes are omitted when this option is checked.
Ignore regexp
Ignore lines matching a regular expression.
Whitespace
When checked diff outputs will converts tab characters to the number of spaces defined in the Preferences dialog menu Tabs to Spaces option.
lines of zero length that differ between source and destination are ignored when this option is checked.
White space before, after and between lines may change depending on different editors. When this option is checked such changes are ignored.
when checked white space differences are completely ignored.
when checked white space resulting from tab characters is ignored.
The Exclude form enables use of the filter options provided by the diff program.
File Pattern to Exclude
Exclude files based on wild card filtering
File with Filenames to Exclude
Define the filter based on the content of an externally managed file.
Would you like to comment or contribute an update to this page?
Send feedback to the TDE Development Team