Examining the algorithms of the diff utility

WHAT'S THE DIFF?

Article from Issue 76/2007
Author(s):

Diff finds the differences between two versions of a file. We’ll show you how diff finds changes and matches in files without affecting a system's resources.

For a user at the command line, discovering the differences between two text files is easy: a simple command, such as diff Version_1.txt Version_2.txt, is all it takes. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that diff needs a large amount of memory and some ingenious algorithms to compare files. This article investigates how diff manages to find changes and matches in multiple megabyte files without affecting a system’s resources.

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