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Detailed Context,
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Example Context,
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Context Format
Detailed Description of Context Format
The context output format starts with a two-line header, which looks
like this:
*** from-file from-file-modification-time
--- to-file to-file-modification time
The time stamp normally looks like 2002-02-21 23:30:39.942229878
-0800 to indicate the date, time with fractional seconds, and time
zone in Internet RFC 2822 format. However, a traditional time stamp like Thu Feb 21
23:30:39 2002 is used if the LC_TIME locale category is either
C or POSIX.
You can change the header's content with the
--label=label option; see Alternate Names.
Next come one or more hunks of differences; each hunk shows one area
where the files differ. Context format hunks look like this:
***************
*** from-file-line-range ****
from-file-line
from-file-line...
--- to-file-line-range ----
to-file-line
to-file-line...
The lines of context around the lines that differ start with two space
characters. The lines that differ between the two files start with one
of the following indicator characters, followed by a space character:
!
- A line that is part of a group of one or more lines that changed between
the two files. There is a corresponding group of lines marked with
! in the part of this hunk for the other file.
+
- An "inserted" line in the second file that corresponds to nothing in
the first file.
-
- A "deleted" line in the first file that corresponds to nothing in the
second file.
If all of the changes in a hunk are insertions, the lines of
from-file are omitted. If all of the changes are deletions, the
lines of to-file are omitted.
