# phpman > man > combinediff(1)

[COMBINEDIFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/COMBINEDIFF/1/markdown)                                Man pages                               [COMBINEDIFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/COMBINEDIFF/1/markdown)



## NAME
       combinediff - create a cumulative unified patch from two incremental patches

## SYNOPSIS
       **combinediff** [[-p _n_] | [--strip-match=_n_]] [[-U _n_] | [--unified=_n_]] [[-d _PAT_] |
                   [--drop-context=_PAT_]] [[-q] | [--quiet]] [[-z] | [--decompress]] [[-b] |
                   [--ignore-space-change]] [[-B] | [--ignore-blank-lines]] [[-i] | [--ignore-case]]
                   [[-w] | [--ignore-all-space]] [[--interpolate] | [--combine]] _diff1_ _diff2_

       **combinediff** {[--help] | [--version]}

## DESCRIPTION
       combinediff creates a unified diff that expresses the sum of two diffs. The diff files must
       be listed in the order that they are to be applied. For best results, the diffs must have at
       least three lines of context.

       Since **combinediff** doesn't have the advantage of being able to look at the files that are to
       be modified, it has stricter requirements on the input format than [**patch**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/patch/1/markdown) does. The output
       of GNU diff will be okay, even with extensions, but if you intend to use a hand-edited patch
       it might be wise to clean up the offsets and counts using [**recountdiff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/recountdiff/1/markdown) first.

       Note, however, that the two patches must be in strict incremental order. In other words, the
       second patch must be relative to the state of the original set of files after the first patch
       was applied.

       The diffs may be in context format. The output, however, will be in unified format.

## OPTIONS
### -p --strip-match=
           When comparing filenames, ignore the first _n_ pathname components from both patches. (This
           is similar to the **-p** option to GNU [**patch**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/patch/1/markdown).)

### -q --quiet
           Quieter output. Don't emit rationale lines at the beginning of each patch.

### -U --unified=
           Attempt to display _n_ lines of context (requires at least _n_ lines of context in both input
           files). (This is similar to the **-U** option to GNU [**diff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/diff/1/markdown).)

### -d --drop-context=
           Don't display any context on files that match the shell wildcard _pattern_. This option can
           be given multiple times.

           Note that the interpretation of the shell wildcard pattern does not count slash
           characters or periods as special (in other words, no flags are given to **fnmatch**). This is
           so that “*/basename”-type patterns can be given without limiting the number of pathname
           components.

### -i --ignore-case
           Consider upper- and lower-case to be the same.

### -w --ignore-all-space
           Ignore whitespace changes in patches.

### -b --ignore-space-change
           Ignore changes in the amount of whitespace.

### -B --ignore-blank-lines
           Ignore changes whose lines are all blank.

### -z --decompress
           Decompress files with extensions .gz and .bz2.

### --interpolate
           Run as “interdiff”. See [**interdiff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/interdiff/1/markdown) for more information about how the behaviour is
           altered in this mode.

### --combine
           Run as “combinediff”. This is the default.

### --help
           Display a short usage message.

### --version
           Display the version number of combinediff.

## BUGS
       The **-U** option is a bit erratic: it can control the amount of context displayed for files that
       are modified in both patches, but not for files that only appear in one patch (which appear
       with the same amount of context in the output as in the input).

## SEE ALSO
       [**interdiff**(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/interdiff/1/markdown)

## AUTHOR
       **Tim** **Waugh** <<twaugh@redhat.com>>
           Package maintainer



patchutils                                   23 Jan 2009                              [COMBINEDIFF(1)](https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/COMBINEDIFF/1/markdown)