rdiff - compute and apply signature-based file differences
rdiff [options] signature old-file signature-file
rdiff [options] delta signature-file new-file delta-file
rdiff [options] patch old-file delta-file new-file
You can use
rdiff to update files, much like
rsync does. However,
unlike
rsync,
rdiff puts you in control. There are three steps
to updating a file:
signature,
delta, and
patch. Use the
signature subcommand to generate a small
signature-file from the
old-file. Use the
delta subcommand to generate a small
delta-file from the
signature-file to the
new-file. Use
the
patch subcommand to apply the
delta-file to the
old-file to regenerate the
new-file.
In every case where a filename must be specified, - may be used instead to mean
either standard input or standard output as appropriate. Be aware that if you
do this, you'll need to terminate your
options with -- or
rdiff
will think you are passing it an empty option.
0 for successful completion, 1 for environmental problems (file not found,
invalid options, IO error, etc), 2 for a corrupt file and 3 for an internal
error or unhandled situation in librsync or rdiff.
librsync(3)
Martin Pool <
[email protected]>
The original rsync algorithm was discovered by Andrew Tridgell.
rdiff development has been supported by Linuxcare, Inc and VA Linux
Systems.