This document describes the diffutils package, a set of programs useful for finding the differences between files with nearly identical content. Such files occur naturally during software or literary or other project development. The included utilities 'diff' and 'diff3' are necessary for the operation of many other applications including 'patch' and RCS - the 'revision control system'. They are all also useful in their own right as aids in file and project maintenence.
To port them to the Zaurus Linux PDAs (and one may presume compatibility with other Linux ARM systems), I compiled them from source (diff_2.8.4.orig.tar.gz from ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool) using ZGCC (rel. 2), the Zaurus onboard gcc compiler (2.95.2). I hacked the configuration slightly, so that utilities 'sdiff' and 'diff3', which execute 'diff' as a subprogram, would look for it in the PATH rather than in the fixed location /usr/local/bin. I have included 'man' documentation in HTML format for your browser.
To install, copy the contents of the bin directory to a directory in your PATH or append that directory to your path. If you are short of space, only 'diff' and 'diff3' are needed by RCS or 'patch', I believe.
Comments, corrections, and contract programming job offers are welcomed by the author: Dr. Jeffrey R. Fox (JeffreyRFox@msn.com)
9/16/03
Manitou Springs, Colorado