NAME

lcfgdiff - compare profiles (or other files)

SYNOPSIS

lcfgdiff [options] file file ...

DESCRIPTION

This command is used by the LCFG test procedures to compare generated files with previous (known good) copies. It can compare XML, XHTML, text and DBM files.

Unless the strict option is used, strings are preprocessed before comparison by removing any text between the delimiters \[%% and %%\]. The LCFG buildtools defines the symbols _dl and _dr to be these delimiters at test time, and to be null when generating production releases. This means that test programs can enclose insignificant output inside these delimiters and it will be ignored when testing.

Individual applications can also define instances of the LCFG::Utils::Diff::Modules class. This allows additional type-specific preprocessing to be performed before comparisons. It allows other options to be controllde - for example ignoring the order of the tags at ceratin nodes in an XML document.

OPTIONS

-D

Debug.

-d domain

The current domain. This is made available to type-specific modules.

-f format

Set file format. This is normally detected automatically and may be xml, text, dbm, or html.

-i

Interactive mode. If the files are diferent, then a GUI interface is presented showing the differences and allowing several options.

-o

Ignore differences in XML/XHTML element order.

-q

Quiet mode - report difference by exit status only.

-s

Strict string comparisons. Do not process delimiters.

-t type

The file type. The module LCFG::Utils::Diff::type is used to control comparisons. This must be a subclass of LCFG::Utils::Diff::Module.

-T title

Window title for interactive mode.

-u

Force the destination file to be updated to match the source file withoout prompting. This can be used to update the "known" good copies of the test files when a tested change has been made.

-v

Verbose.

-V

Print usage mesage and exit.

-w

Ignore differences in whitespace.

-v

Verbose.

VARIABLES

XEDITOR

An X-aware editor to be used when the Edit button is pressed in interactive mode.

VDIFF

An X-aware diff program to be used when the Diff button is pressed in interactive mode.

BROWSER

An X-aware browser program to be used when the View button is pressed for HTML files.

PLATFORMS

This is the list of platforms on which we have tested this software. We expect this software to work on any Unix-like platform which is supported by Perl.

ScientificLinux6, EnterpriseLinux7, Debian

BUGS AND LIMITATIONS

Please report any bugs or problems (or praise!) to bugs@lcfg.org, feedback and patches are also always very welcome.

AUTHOR

Stephen Quinney <squinney@inf.ed.ac.uk>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2009-2019 University of Edinburgh. All rights reserved.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL, version 2 or later.