What is file sharing? In computing there is a software which performs the function of file comparing. It outputs the differences between two files. The program displays the changes made per line for text files. The ‘diff’ is a file comparison utility that performs this function. Modern implementations also support binary files. The output is called a diff or more commonly a patch since the output can be applied with the program patch. Just like the word ‘grep’ is used for the act of searching, the word diff is used in jargon as a verb for calculating any difference. The ‘diff’ utility was developed in the early 1970’s on the UNIX operating system in the AT&T labs in the USA.
Understanding ‘diff’. In the context of the UNIX operating system the use of the ‘ed’ line editor provided diff with the natural ability to create machine usable ‘edit scripts.’ These edit scripts when saved to a file, can with the original file be reconstituted by ‘ed’ into the modified file in its entirety. This greatly reduces the secondary storage required to maintain multiple versions of a file. When...