diff options

These standard options are supported by diff (see section Common command options, for a complete description of them):

-D date

Use the most recent revision no later than date. See `-r' for how this affects the comparison. CVS can be configured to pass the `-D' option through to rcsdiff (which in turn passes it on to diff. GNU diff uses `-D' as a way to put cpp-style `#define' statements around the output differences. There is no way short of testing to figure out how CVS was configured. In the default configuration CVS will use the `-D date' option.

-k kflag

Process RCS keywords according to kflag. See co(1).

-l

Local; run only in current working directory.

-R

Examine directories recursively. This option is on by default.

-r tag

Compare with revision tag. Zero, one or two `-r' options can be present. With no `-r' option, the working file will be compared with the revision it was based on. With one `-r', that revision will be compared to your current working file. With two `-r' options those two revisions will be compared (and your working file will not affect the outcome in any way). One or both `-r' options can be replaced by a `-D date' option, described above.

Any other options that are found are passed through to rcsdiff, which in turn passes them to diff. The exact meaning of the options depends on which diff you are using. The long options introduced in GNU diff 2.0 are not yet supported in CVS. See the documentation for your diff to see which options are supported.