merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS

       merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION

       merge  incorporates  all  changes  that lead from file2 to
       file3 into file1.  The result ordinarily goes into  file1.
       merge is useful for combining separate changes to an orig-
       inal.  Suppose file2 is the original, and both  file1  and
       file3  are  modifications  of  file2.  Then merge combines
       both changes.

       A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes  in
       a  common segment of lines.  If a conflict is found, merge
       normally outputs a warning and brackets the conflict  with
       <<<<<<<  and  >>>>>>> lines.  A typical conflict will look
       like this:

              <<<<<<< file A
              lines in file A
              =======
              lines in file B
              >>>>>>> file B

       If there are conflicts, the user should  edit  the  result
       and delete one of the alternatives.

OPTIONS

       -A     Output conflicts using the -A style of diff3(1), if
              supported by diff3.  This merges all changes  lead-
              ing  from  file2 to file3 into file1, and generates
              the most verbose output.

       -E, -e These options specify conflict styles that generate
              less   information   than  -A.   See  diff3(1)  for
              details.  The default is -E.  With -e,  merge  does
              not warn about conflicts.

       -L label
              This  option  may  be  given up to three times, and
              specifies labels to be used in place of the  corre-
              sponding  file names in conflict reports.  That is,
              merge -L x -L y -L z a b c  generates  output  that
              looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of
              from files a, b and c.

       -p     Send results to standard output  instead  of  over-
              writing file1.

       -q     Quiet;  do  not  warn about conflicts.  -V Print 's
              version number.

       Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2
       for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION

       Author: Walter F. Tichy.
       Manual Page Revision: 1.1; Release Date: 1996/03/05.
       Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
       Copyright  (C)  1990,  1991,  1992,  1993, 1994, 1995 Paul
       Eggert.

SEE ALSO

       diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).

BUGS

       It normally does not make sense to merge binary  files  as
       if they were text, but merge tries to do it anyway.