Example of contrasting files with the sdiff command

To contrast two files:

   sdiff -w 80 email addresses
   Mike erpl08@ed                  | John erpl08@ed
   Joe  CZT@cern.ch                Joe  CZT@cern.ch
                                   >  Jean JRS@pollux.ucs.co
                                   >  Jim  jim@frolix8
   Kim  ks@x.co                    Kim  ks@x.co
   Sam  s.wally@aston              <
   Keith keith@festival            Keith keith@festival

This contrasts the two files email on the left and addresses on the right.

The option -w 80 is used to set the width of the output from the command to 80 characters - the most that will fit across most computer terminals. The default is 130 characters.

The first line in each file is different and is marked with a |. Lines 3 and 4 of the file addresses are unique as is line 4 of the file email. All the other lines are identical.