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Command Line Options

Syntax

Compare Two Files Or Directories

ExamDiff [Path1] [Path2] [Options]
ExamDiff /se:Session [Path1] [Path2]
ExamDiff /sf:SessionFile

Merge Three Files Into Fourth File

ExamDiff /merge LeftPath CenterPath RightPath [/o:OutputPath] [Options]
ExamDiff /se:Session [LeftPath] [CenterPath] [RightPath]
ExamDiff /sf:SessionFile

Parameters

Path1, Path2: paths of files or directories to be compared
LeftPath (Theirs), CenterPath (Base), RightPath (Yours): paths of files to be merged
OutputPath: path of the output file with merge results
Session: name of the session to be used for comparison or merging
SessionFile: name of the session file to be used for comparison or merging

Options

	/i	ignore case
	/w	ignore all white space in lines
	/b	ignore changes in amount of white space in lines
	/l	ignore leading white space in lines
	/e	ignore trailing white space in lines
	/k	ignore blank lines
	/j:RE	ignore lines matching regular expression RE
	/br	briefly report whether files/directories differ
	/t	treat both files as text files
	/tb	treat both files as binary files
	/d	use status view filter
	/q:M	set tab size to M characters
	/s	consider files with same size and timestamp identical
	/ic	consider files with same CRC identical
	/y	consider files with different sizes different
	/u	consider files with different attributes different
	/z	consider files with different timestamps different
	/dc	consider files with different CRC values different
	/dv	consider files with different versions different
	/r0	do not compare subdirectories at all
	/r1	compare subdirectories only to determine their status
	/r2	compare subdirectories recursively
	/fi:filter	specify include filter for directory comparison
	/fx:filter	specify exclude filter for directory comparison
	/f	report file differences during directory comparison
	/n	don't show initial "Compare" dialog
	/sd	always show initial "Compare" dialog, even if paths are provided
	/a:N	scroll through all differences with N second delay and exit after the last difference
	/o:file	output diff results into a file (or to standard output if '-' is specified) and exit; can be used with /f option
	/no	do not generate output file if no diffs are found
	/em:email	email diff results to the address 'email' (note: some MAPI clients, such as Outlook, require the "smtp:" prefix before the email address; can be used with /f option)
	/append	append to existing output file (used with /o option; default - replace existing output file)
	/html	output HTML diff report (used with /o and /em options; default - text diff format; does not work with standard output or with /append option; can be used with /f option)
	/p[:printer]	print diff report to default or specified printer and exit
	/c	print file diffs when printing directory diff report
	/x	read-only mode
	/g:file	load ExamDiff Pro options from an options file
	/gx:file	save ExamDiff Pro options to an options file
	/ff	force initial file comparison dialog
	/fd	force initial directory comparison dialog
	/swap	swap first and second file/directory
	/sn1:file	use this name when you save the first file
	/sn2:file	use this name when you save the second file
	/nh	do not add files or directories to comparison history
	/statsonly	output only comparison statistics
	/dn1:name	use this as the first file/directory caption
	/dn2:name	use this as the second file/directory caption
	/dn3:name	use this as the third file caption
	/dno:name	use this as the merge output caption
	/dt1:name	use this as the tag for the first/left file
	/dt2:name	use this as the tag for the second/center file
	/dt3:name	use this as the tag for the third/right file
	/noui	if all conflicts are resolved, output merge results and exit (used with /o option)
	/preselect:N	in case of a conflict, use center (N=2; default), left (N=1), or right (N=3) file; used only for three-way merge
	/autoresolve	mark conflicts as resolved (default - false; typically used with /preselect option; does not affect two-way merge)
	/diffonly	diff-only merge mode: hide the merge pane
	/?,/h	print this screen

Notes

Options may be entered before or after paths of files or directories. Use // to specify that no more options will be entered in command line.
If only /se:Session is specified, the session's file/directory paths and options will be used, even if some other options are also specified (they will be ignored.)
If /se:Session option is specified along with file/directory paths, the specified paths will be used, along with the options from the session (even if other options are specified in command line).
If no session is specified, the unnamed default session will be used.
If /sf:SessionFile is specified, the session file's file/directory paths and options will be used, even if some other options are also specified (they will be ignored.)
Options /i, /w, /b, /l, /e, /k, /j, /br, /d, /s, /y, /u, /z, /dc, /dv and /c can be used with "!", in which case the option will be negated (e.g. /!i means do not ignore case).
If options /i, /w, /b, /l, /e, /k, /j, /br, /d, /s, /y, /u, /z, /dc, /dv, /c (or their negations), /t, tb, /r0, /r1, /r2, /fi, or /fx are not set, the last used options in the specified or default session remain in effect.
Command line options are in effect only for the duration of the current comparison. If the Options dialog is started, matching command line options will used to initialize the dialog.
Only the following options are valid for file merging (with their negations where applicable): /w, /b, /l, /e, /q, /sd, /o, /g, /nh, /dn1, /dn2, /dn3, /dno, /dt1, /dt2, /dt3, /noui, /se and /sf.

Comparison Examples

ExamDiff c:\temp\a.txt c:\temp\b.txt /o:-
ExamDiff c:\temp\dir1 c:\temp\dir2 /d /fi:*.txt
ExamDiff c:\temp\dir1 c:\temp\dir2 /se:Unicode
ExamDiff // -a.txt -b.txt

Merging Examples

ExamDiff /merge c:\temp\theirs.txt c:\temp\base.txt c:\temp\yours.txt /o:c:\output.txt
ExamDiff /merge c:\temp\theirs.txt c:\temp\yours.txt /o:c:\output.txt
ExamDiff /merge c:\temp\theirs.txt c:\temp\base.txt c:\temp\yours.txt /w /dn1:Server /dn2:Base /dn3:Local /nh

Comparison Exit Codes

	0	identical files or directories
	1	different files or directories
	2	an error occurred

Merging Exit Codes

	0	no conflicts
	1	some conflicts were found
	2	an error occurred

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