.ds Rv 5.10.1 .ds Dt 2022-02-03 .ds i \&\s-1ISO\s0 .ds r \&\s-1RCS\s0 .ds u \&\s-1UTC\s0 .ds o \*r file .TH MERGE 1 "\*(Dt" "GNU RCS \*(Rv" .SH NAME merge \- three-way file merge .SH SYNOPSIS .B merge [ .I "options" ] .I "file1 file2 file3" .SH DESCRIPTION .B merge incorporates all changes that lead from .I file2 to .I file3 into .IR file1 . The result ordinarily goes into .IR file1 . .B merge is useful for combining separate changes to an original. Suppose .I file2 is the original, and both .I file1 and .I file3 are modifications of .IR file2 . Then .B merge combines both changes. .PP A conflict occurs if both .I file1 and .I file3 have changes in a common segment of lines. If a conflict is found, .B merge normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict with .B <<<<<<< and .B >>>>>>> lines. A typical conflict will look like this: .LP .RS .nf .BI <<<<<<< " file A" .I "lines in file A" .B "=======" .I "lines in file B" .BI >>>>>>> " file B" .RE .fi .LP If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of the alternatives. .SH OPTIONS .TP .B \-A Output conflicts using the .B \-A style of .BR diff3 (1), if supported by .BR diff3 . This merges all changes leading from .I file2 to .I file3 into .IR file1 , and generates the most verbose output. .TP \f3\-E\fP, \f3\-e\fP These options specify conflict styles that generate less information than .BR \-A . See .BR diff3 (1) for details. The default is .BR \-E . With .BR \-e , .B merge does not warn about conflicts. .TP .BI \-L " label" This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict reports. That is, .B "merge\ \-L\ x\ \-L\ y\ \-L\ z\ a\ b\ c" generates output that looks like it came from files .BR x , .B y and .B z instead of from files .BR a , .B b and .BR c . .TP .BI \-p Send results to standard output instead of overwriting .IR file1 . .TP .BI \-q Quiet; do not warn about conflicts. .TP .BI \-V Print \*r's version number. .SH DIAGNOSTICS Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble. .ds EY 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 .SH IDENTIFICATION Author: Walter F. Tichy. .br Manual Page Revision: \*(Rv; Release Date: \*(Dt. .br Copyright \(co 2010-2022 Thien-Thi Nguyen. .br Copyright \(co \*(EY Paul Eggert. .br Copyright \(co 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy. .br .SH "SEE ALSO" .BR diff3 (1), .BR diff (1), .BR rcsmerge (1), .BR co (1). .PP The full documentation for \*r is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the .BR info (1) and \*r programs are properly installed at your site, the command .IP .B info rcs .PP should give you access to the complete manual. Additionally, the \*r homepage: .IP .B http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs/ .PP has news and links to the latest release, development site, etc. .SH BUGS It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were text, but .B merge tries to do it anyway. .br