The DIFFERENCES command compares the contents of two files. If
CMS finds differences, it creates a file named first-file-name.DIF
in your current default directory (unless /OUTPUT is in effect.)
If the files are the same, it issues a message to that effect
and does not create a differences file. By default, CMS compares
two files that are not located in a CMS library. However, you can
direct CMS to use element generations from the current library by
specifying the /GENERATION qualifier on one or both of the file
name parameters.
Note: If both file1 and file2 are element generations, both
generations must reside in the same library of the search list
or an error will occur.
A difference is defined as one of the following:
o A line or lines that are in one file and not in the other.
o A replacement of n lines by m lines (n may or may not be equal
to m).
Only the lines that differ are displayed in the differences file
(unless you specify /FULL).
A heading at the beginning of the differences file includes the
name of the user that issued the command, the date and time the
command was issued, and the file specifications of the two files
being compared. If you direct CMS to use element generations and
you have specified the /FORMAT option generation-differences,
the differences listing contains a section labeled "Generation
Differences" that contains the replacement history for the
element. Each generation used in the comparison is identified by
an asterisk (*) in the first column of the transaction record.
The differences between the files are contained in a section
labeled "Text Differences." By default, each difference is
formatted with the line or lines from the first file followed by
the differing line or lines from the second file. If a difference
consists of a line or lines in one file but not the other,
only the lines from the file containing the additional text are
displayed.
If you specify the /SKIP, /SENTINEL, and /IGNORE qualifiers on the
same command line, they are processed in the following order:
(1) /IGNORE=HISTORY
(2) /IGNORE=NOTES
(3) /SKIP
(4) /SENTINEL
(5) /IGNORE options other than HISTORY or NOTES
For example, if you specify /SKIP=5 and /SENTINEL=("sushi","bar"),
DIFFERENCES disregards the first 5 lines in each of the compared
files, and then searches the remainder of each file for the
sentinel character strings "sushi" and "bar".