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From: Jan Grant <Jan.Grant@bristol.ac.uk>
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Subject: Re: Fast diff command for large files?
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On Fri, 4 Nov 2005, Kirk Strauser wrote:

> <thinking out loud>
> I wonder if rsync could be modified to output its patches rather than 
> silently applying them to a target file.  It seems to be pretty good at 
> comparing large files quickly...
> </thinking>

More thinking out loud: since these are database dumps, they're 
order-independent. So, sort the files into a predictable lexical order, 
then a diff is a linear operation over tonight's file versus last 
night's.


-- 
jan grant, ILRT, University of Bristol. http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/
Tel +44 (0)117 3317661   http://ioctl.org/jan/
Rereleasing dolphins into the wild since 1998.