espdiff Command in Linux

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espdiff is a command line utility in Linux that is used to create and apply patches to the given files. This command line utility compares two files and creates a new patch file that shows the difference between the provided files. You can also use different options with this command to customize its behavior as per your requirements.

In this tutorial, well walk you through several use cases of the espdiff command in Linux.

Table of Contents

Here is a comprehensive guide to the options available with the espdiff command in linux −

• Prerequisites - Install espdiff in Linux
• How to use espdiff Command in Linux?
• espdiff Command Options
• Examples of espdiff Command in Linux
• Accessing espdiff Manual Page
• Accessing espdiff Help Page
• How to Check the espdiff Version in Linux?

Prerequisites Install espdiff in Linux

espdiff may not be pre-installed on modern Linux distributions. However, we easily install it using the default package managers, as listed in the following snippet −

#For Debian-based Systems
sudo apt install espdiff

#For Fedora, CentOS, or RHEL Systems
sudo dnf install espdiff

#For Arch Linux
yay install espdiff

You can confirm the espdiff installation by running the following command −

espdiff --version

How to use espdiff Command in Linux?

espdiff transforms or processes patches based on the specific task we want to achieve. The patches should apply smoothly without errors or offsets and in the correct sequence. However, if the patches have issues like errors or incorrect sequence, then the espdiff command might not work properly. As a result, you can face potential problems during execution.

Basic Syntax

To use this command in Linux, you must follow the below-mentioned syntax −

espdiff [--deep-brainwave-mode] [--recurse] [--compare] [file...]
espdiff {[--help] | [--version]}

Here, "files" represents one or more files that espdiff will process. The three dots (...) show that we can also specify multiple files.

espdiff Command Options

The following table illustrates the valid options for the espdiff command along with their description −

Examples of espdiff Command in Linux

Lets discuss a few examples of espdiff commands in Linux systems. This will help you in learning how to get started with the command.

• Compare Two Files and Generate a Patch File
• Compare Two Files and Apply a Patch File
• Apply Multiple Patches to a File
• How to Get/Show Patch Information?

Compare Two Files and Generate a Patch File

Suppose we have two files sample.elf and example.elf. We can compare these files using the espdiff command and generate a patch file from them, like this −

espdiff sample.elf example.elf -o outputFile.patch

This command will compare the sample.elf file with the example.elf, and writes the differences to outputFile.patch. You can confirm the content of the patch file using a text editor or cat, as shown below −

cat outputFile.patch

Compare Two Files and Apply a Patch File

We can use the espdiff command with the -a option to apply a patch to existing files −

espdiff -a sample.elf output_patch.diff > new_patch.elf

This command reads a patch file and updates the sample.elf file accordingly. As a result, it generates a "new_patch.elf" file as the final output.

Apply Multiple Patches to a File

We can run the espdiff command with the -a option to apply multiple patches to a file, as shown below −

espdiff -a input.elf update1.diff update2.diff > updated_input.elf

This command uses "-a" option to apply two patch files "update1.diff" and "update2.diff" to an original ELF file "input.elf" and finally saves the result as a new ELF file "updated_input.elf".

How to Get/Show Patch Information?

Run the espdiff command with the -v option to get detailed information about the patching process −

espdiff -v patch_file.diff

This command uses the verbose option to retrieve the detailed path information.

Accessing espdiff Manual Page

For more details, you can access the manual page of the espdiff command, as follows −

man espdiff

This command shows the details like command name, description, synopsis, valid options, limitations and authors −

Accessing espdiff Help Page

Run the below command if you want to learn the basic usage of espdiff command −

espdiff --help

How to Check espdiff Version in Linux?

You can run the espdiff command with the "--version" option to determine which version of espdiff is installed on your system −

espdiff --version

Thats all about the espdiff command.

Conclusion

espdiff is a command-line utility used for creating and applying patches to files, though it is not commonly included by default in modern Linux distributions. You can install it separately to meet your patching needs.

This tutorial covered the installation, basic syntax, and various options of espdiff command. It also includes practical examples for comparing files, generating patches, and applying them.

For more detailed usage and command options, refer to the espdiff manual and help pages, accessible via the "man espdiff" and "espdiff help" commands, respectively.