xdiff Functions
PHP Manual

xdiff_file_diff

Make unified diff of two files

Description

bool xdiff_file_diff ( string $old_file , string $new_file , string $dest [, int $context = 3 [, bool $minimal = false ]] )

Makes an unified diff containing differences between old_file and new_file and stores it in dest file. The resulting file is human-readable. An optional context parameter specifies how many lines of context should be added around each change. Setting minimal parameter to true will result in outputting the shortest patch file possible (can take a long time).

Parameters

old_file

Path to the first file. This file acts as "old" file.

new_file

Path to the second file. This file acts as "new" file.

dest

Path of the resulting patch file.

context

Indicates how many lines of context you want to include in diff result.

minimal

Set this parameter to TRUE if you want to minimalize size of the result (can take a long time).

Return Values

Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Examples

Example #1 xdiff_file_diff example

The following code makes unified diff of two php files with context length of 2.

<?php
$old_version = 'my_script.php';
$new_version = 'my_new_script.php';

xdiff_file_diff($old_version, $new_version, 'my_script.diff', 2);
?>

Notes

Note:

This function doesn't work well with binary files. To make diff of binary files use xdiff_file_bdiff/xdiff_file_rabdiff function.

See Also

  • xdiff_file_patch