diff

Reginald needs to teach Maxine, a new RHEL Sysadmin, how to use the diff command. Give 5 thorough examples of diff to increase her expertise.

1. Basic usage:
   • diff file1.txt file2.txt
   • This will compare file1.txt and file2.txt and output the differences between them.
2. Output to a file:
   • diff file1.txt file2.txt > differences.txt
   • This will compare file1.txt and file2.txt and write the differences to a new file called differences.txt.
3. Ignore white space:
   • diff -w file1.txt file2.txt
   • This will compare file1.txt and file2.txt, but ignore differences in white space (e.g. spaces, tabs, and line breaks).
4. Recursive directory comparison:
   • diff -r dir1 dir2
   • This will recursively compare the contents of dir1 and dir2, showing the differences between any files that have the same name in both directories.
5. Unified output format:
   • diff -u file1.txt file2.txt
   • This will compare file1.txt and file2.txt and output the differences in a unified format, with lines from both files shown together. This format is often easier to read and understand than the default side-by-side format.

Overall, the diff command is a powerful tool for comparing files and directories in Linux, and the above examples should help Maxine increase her expertise.