bsdiff.1 (2467B)
1 .\"- 2 .\" Copyright 2003-2005 Colin Percival 3 .\" All rights reserved 4 .\" 5 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6 .\" modification, are permitted providing that the following conditions 7 .\" are met: 8 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13 .\" 14 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR 15 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED 16 .\" WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 17 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY 18 .\" DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 19 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 20 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 21 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, 22 .\" STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING 23 .\" IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 24 .\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 25 .\" 26 .\" $FreeBSD$ 27 .\" 28 .Dd May 18, 2003 29 .Dt BSDIFF 1 30 .Os 31 .Sh NAME 32 .Nm bsdiff 33 .Nd generate a patch between two binary files 34 .Sh SYNOPSIS 35 .Nm 36 .Ar oldfile newfile patchfile 37 .Sh DESCRIPTION 38 The 39 .Nm 40 utility compares 41 .Ar oldfile 42 to 43 .Ar newfile 44 and writes to 45 .Ar patchfile 46 a binary patch suitable for use by 47 .Xr bspatch 1 . 48 When 49 .Ar oldfile 50 and 51 .Ar newfile 52 are two versions of an executable program, 53 the patches produced are on average a factor of five smaller than those 54 produced by any other binary patch tool known to the author. 55 .Pp 56 The 57 .Nm 58 utility 59 uses memory equal to 17 times the size of 60 .Ar oldfile , 61 and requires an absolute minimum working set size of 8 times the size of 62 .Ar oldfile . 63 .Sh SEE ALSO 64 .Xr bspatch 1 65 .Sh AUTHORS 66 .An Colin Percival Aq Mt cperciva@FreeBSD.org 67 .Sh BUGS 68 The 69 .Nm 70 utility does not store the hashes of 71 .Ar oldfile 72 or 73 .Ar newfile 74 in 75 .Ar patchfile . 76 As a result, it is possible to apply a patch to the wrong file; 77 this will usually produce garbage. 78 It is recommended that users of 79 .Nm 80 store the hashes of 81 .Ar oldfile 82 and 83 .Ar newfile 84 and compare against them before and after applying 85 .Ar patchfile .