diff-multi

diff-multi provides a helper script, dirDiff.sh, that extracts the unique lines from every file in a directory. The script copies each file into a temporary working area, normalises their contents, and generates a side-by-side style report that highlights the lines that only appear in a single file.

Usage

./dirDiff.sh <directory>

The command expects a directory that contains the files you want to compare. If the provided path does not exist, is not a directory, or does not contain any files, the script prints a helpful error message and exits.

A successful run leaves the generated diffs inside a temporary directory that is cleaned up automatically when the script exits. Each diff file contains three sections:

• A header showing the original filename.
• The normalised file contents with infrequent tokens replaced by placeholders.
• An === missing === block that shows the common lines shared across the files.

You can inspect the diff files while the script is running by browsing the temporary diff directory printed in the script's output. Copy any files you want to keep before it finishes so they are not removed by the cleanup step.

Diagram

flowchart TD
    A[Input directory] --> B{Validate path}
    B -- invalid --> C[Print error message]
    B -- valid --> D[Copy files to temp workspace]
    D --> E[Normalise file contents]
    E --> F[Generate side-by-side diffs]
    F --> G[Highlight unique lines]
    G --> H[Write diff files in temp dir]
    H --> I[Inspect and optionally copy results]
    I --> J[Cleanup temporary files]

Loading