diff showing only differences inside line

Multi tool use
Multi tool use












8















I want to compare lines in two files, but to minimize noise in the output, I want only the actual differences in the lines to be printed.



For instance, given the two files below:



a.txt



a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


b.txt



a Ь c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


(the difference is only that the second line has a cyrillic character instead of a lowercase b)



I want the output to be something like:



[-b-]{+Ь+}


Currently, the best approach I found was to use git diff --word-diff, but it outputs the whole line:



a [-b-]{+Ь+} c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


Is there a more direct way to do it, other than manually parsing the output? Also, ideally I would prefer to use something more commonly available than git diff, e.g. a POSIX shell tool that would not require the user to install extra packages.










share|improve this question

























  • It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

    – Barmar
    18 mins ago











  • Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

    – anol
    14 mins ago











  • Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

    – Barmar
    4 mins ago
















8















I want to compare lines in two files, but to minimize noise in the output, I want only the actual differences in the lines to be printed.



For instance, given the two files below:



a.txt



a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


b.txt



a Ь c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


(the difference is only that the second line has a cyrillic character instead of a lowercase b)



I want the output to be something like:



[-b-]{+Ь+}


Currently, the best approach I found was to use git diff --word-diff, but it outputs the whole line:



a [-b-]{+Ь+} c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


Is there a more direct way to do it, other than manually parsing the output? Also, ideally I would prefer to use something more commonly available than git diff, e.g. a POSIX shell tool that would not require the user to install extra packages.










share|improve this question

























  • It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

    – Barmar
    18 mins ago











  • Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

    – anol
    14 mins ago











  • Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

    – Barmar
    4 mins ago














8












8








8


2






I want to compare lines in two files, but to minimize noise in the output, I want only the actual differences in the lines to be printed.



For instance, given the two files below:



a.txt



a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


b.txt



a Ь c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


(the difference is only that the second line has a cyrillic character instead of a lowercase b)



I want the output to be something like:



[-b-]{+Ь+}


Currently, the best approach I found was to use git diff --word-diff, but it outputs the whole line:



a [-b-]{+Ь+} c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


Is there a more direct way to do it, other than manually parsing the output? Also, ideally I would prefer to use something more commonly available than git diff, e.g. a POSIX shell tool that would not require the user to install extra packages.










share|improve this question
















I want to compare lines in two files, but to minimize noise in the output, I want only the actual differences in the lines to be printed.



For instance, given the two files below:



a.txt



a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


b.txt



a Ь c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


(the difference is only that the second line has a cyrillic character instead of a lowercase b)



I want the output to be something like:



[-b-]{+Ь+}


Currently, the best approach I found was to use git diff --word-diff, but it outputs the whole line:



a [-b-]{+Ь+} c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z


Is there a more direct way to do it, other than manually parsing the output? Also, ideally I would prefer to use something more commonly available than git diff, e.g. a POSIX shell tool that would not require the user to install extra packages.







shell-script diff






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited 14 mins ago







anol

















asked 9 hours ago









anolanol

378411




378411













  • It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

    – Barmar
    18 mins ago











  • Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

    – anol
    14 mins ago











  • Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

    – Barmar
    4 mins ago



















  • It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

    – Barmar
    18 mins ago











  • Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

    – anol
    14 mins ago











  • Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

    – Barmar
    4 mins ago

















It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

– Barmar
18 mins ago





It would be nice if you used an example where the differences were more visible. I had to squint to see that those two characters are not the same.

– Barmar
18 mins ago













Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

– anol
14 mins ago





Sorry, I added a note describing the difference between the lines.

– anol
14 mins ago













Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

– Barmar
4 mins ago





Why not just use b and B so it's obvious? I understand that this was probably the actual difference, but for purposes of the question you can make it easier.

– Barmar
4 mins ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes


















12














Using wdiff:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt

======================================================================
[-b-] {+Ь+}
======================================================================


The -3 or ---no-common option will remove words that are common between the two files and only show the differences.



The ===... banner (and empty lines) may be removed with grep:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt | grep -vx '=*'
[-b-] {+Ь+}


wdiff may also read unified diff data if you give it the -d or --diff-input option, for example from git:



git diff somefile | wdiff -d -3


Although wdiff is not a POSIX tool, it is from GNU and commonly available.






share|improve this answer


























  • It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

    – scohe001
    49 mins ago











Your Answer








StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "106"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});

function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});


}
});














draft saved

draft discarded


















StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f495228%2fdiff-showing-only-differences-inside-line%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown

























1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes








1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

votes






active

oldest

votes









12














Using wdiff:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt

======================================================================
[-b-] {+Ь+}
======================================================================


The -3 or ---no-common option will remove words that are common between the two files and only show the differences.



The ===... banner (and empty lines) may be removed with grep:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt | grep -vx '=*'
[-b-] {+Ь+}


wdiff may also read unified diff data if you give it the -d or --diff-input option, for example from git:



git diff somefile | wdiff -d -3


Although wdiff is not a POSIX tool, it is from GNU and commonly available.






share|improve this answer


























  • It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

    – scohe001
    49 mins ago
















12














Using wdiff:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt

======================================================================
[-b-] {+Ь+}
======================================================================


The -3 or ---no-common option will remove words that are common between the two files and only show the differences.



The ===... banner (and empty lines) may be removed with grep:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt | grep -vx '=*'
[-b-] {+Ь+}


wdiff may also read unified diff data if you give it the -d or --diff-input option, for example from git:



git diff somefile | wdiff -d -3


Although wdiff is not a POSIX tool, it is from GNU and commonly available.






share|improve this answer


























  • It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

    – scohe001
    49 mins ago














12












12








12







Using wdiff:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt

======================================================================
[-b-] {+Ь+}
======================================================================


The -3 or ---no-common option will remove words that are common between the two files and only show the differences.



The ===... banner (and empty lines) may be removed with grep:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt | grep -vx '=*'
[-b-] {+Ь+}


wdiff may also read unified diff data if you give it the -d or --diff-input option, for example from git:



git diff somefile | wdiff -d -3


Although wdiff is not a POSIX tool, it is from GNU and commonly available.






share|improve this answer















Using wdiff:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt

======================================================================
[-b-] {+Ь+}
======================================================================


The -3 or ---no-common option will remove words that are common between the two files and only show the differences.



The ===... banner (and empty lines) may be removed with grep:



$ wdiff -3 a.txt b.txt | grep -vx '=*'
[-b-] {+Ь+}


wdiff may also read unified diff data if you give it the -d or --diff-input option, for example from git:



git diff somefile | wdiff -d -3


Although wdiff is not a POSIX tool, it is from GNU and commonly available.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 27 mins ago









bdsl

1553




1553










answered 9 hours ago









KusalanandaKusalananda

124k16236387




124k16236387













  • It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

    – scohe001
    49 mins ago



















  • It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

    – scohe001
    49 mins ago

















It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

– scohe001
49 mins ago





It might be worth noting that if your terminal supports ANSI escapes, you can make wdiff print fancy colored output that's (imo) easier to read with this in your bashrc: alias wdiff="wdiff -n -w $'33[30;41m' -x $'33[0m' -y $'33[30;42m' -z $'33[0m'" (taken from here).

– scohe001
49 mins ago


















draft saved

draft discarded




















































Thanks for contributing an answer to Unix & Linux Stack Exchange!


  • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

But avoid



  • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

  • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




draft saved


draft discarded














StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2funix.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f495228%2fdiff-showing-only-differences-inside-line%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);

Post as a guest















Required, but never shown





















































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown

































Required, but never shown














Required, but never shown












Required, but never shown







Required, but never shown







x PG6j1escVQ,SOFsbW
5ns YTU1ad,zWaxbbT6 R66LYPAN 3nkHK,OI,aOW ZwI9fmPU6fCN4OEt7

Popular posts from this blog

Mouloudia Club d'Alger (football)

ASUS Zenbook UX433/UX333 — Configure Touchpad-embedded numpad on Linux

Ueberstorf