diffutils ☆

« Back to VersTracker

Description:
File comparison utilities

Type: Formula | Latest Version: 3.12@0 | Tracked Since: Dec 17, 2025

Links: Homepage | formulae.brew.sh

Category: Developer tools

Tags: comparison patching cli text-processing gnu

Install: brew install diffutils

About:
GNU Diffutils provides a suite of commands to compare files and directories line-by-line. Its primary tool, 'diff', generates patches to transform one file into another, which is essential for code reviews and version control. The package also includes 'cmp' for binary comparisons and 'diff3' for three-way merges.

Key Features:

Line-by-line file comparison with 'diff'
Binary file comparison with 'cmp'
Three-way file merging with 'diff3'
Generates standard patch files for code updates

Use Cases:

Generating patches for source code updates
Comparing configuration files across different environments
Merging changes from multiple file versions

Alternatives:

git-diff – Git's built-in diff is optimized for version control but Diffutils offers standalone, scriptable utilities.

License: GPL-3.0-or-later

Bottles available for: arm64_tahoe, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_ventura, sonoma, ventura, arm64_linux, x86_64_linux

Version History

Detected	Version	Rev	Change	Commit