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MERGE(1)		     General Commands Manual			MERGE(1)

NAME
     merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS
     merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION
     merge  incorporates  all  changes that lead from file2 to file3 into file1.
     The result ordinarily goes into file1.  merge is useful for combining sepa-
     rate changes to an original.  Suppose file2 is the original, and both file1
     and file3 are modifications of file2.  Then merge combines both changes.

     A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common  segment
     of  lines.   If  a  conflict is found, merge normally outputs a warning and
     brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines.  A  typical	conflict
     will look like this:

	    <<<<<<< file A
	    lines in file A
	    =======
	    lines in file B
	    >>>>>>> file B

     If  there	are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one of
     the alternatives.

OPTIONS
     -A     Output conflicts using the -A style of  diff3(1),  if  supported  by
	    diff3.   This  merges  all	changes leading from file2 to file3 into
	    file1, and generates the most verbose output.

     -E, -e
	    These options specify conflict styles that generate less information
	    than -A.  See diff3(1) for details.  The default is  -E.   With  -e,
	    merge does not warn about conflicts.

     -L label
	    This  option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels to
	    be used in place of the corresponding file	names  in  conflict  re-
	    ports.   That  is,	merge -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output that
	    looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of from files a,  b
	    and c.

     -p     Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.

     -q     Quiet; do not warn about conflicts.  -V Print 's version number.

DIAGNOSTICS
     Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION
     Author: Walter F. Tichy.
     Manual Page Revision: 5.7; Release Date: 1995/06/01.
     Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
     Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.

SEE ALSO
     diff3(1), diff(1), rcsmerge(1), co(1).

BUGS
     It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were text,
     but merge tries to do it anyway.

GNU				   1995/06/01				MERGE(1)

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