COMM man page on Oracle

Man page or keyword search:  
man Server   33470 pages
apropos Keyword Search (all sections)
Output format
Oracle logo
[printable version]

COMM(1P)		   POSIX Programmer's Manual		      COMM(1P)

PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the	 corresponding
       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
       not be implemented on Linux.

NAME
       comm - select or reject lines common to two files

SYNOPSIS
       comm [-123] file1 file2

DESCRIPTION
       The comm utility shall read file1 and file2, which should be ordered in
       the  current collating sequence, and produce three text columns as out‐
       put: lines only in file1, lines only in file2, and lines in both files.

       If the lines in both files are not ordered according to	the  collating
       sequence of the current locale, the results are unspecified.

OPTIONS
       The  comm  utility  shall  conform  to  the  Base Definitions volume of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

       The following options shall be supported:

       -1     Suppress the output column of lines unique to file1.

       -2     Suppress the output column of lines unique to file2.

       -3     Suppress the output column of  lines  duplicated	in  file1  and
	      file2.

OPERANDS
       The following operands shall be supported:

       file1  A	 pathname  of  the first file to be compared. If file1 is '-',
	      the standard input shall be used.

       file2  A pathname of the second file to be compared. If file2  is  '-',
	      the standard input shall be used.

       If  both	 file1	and  file2 refer to standard input or to the same FIFO
       special, block special, or character  special  file,  the  results  are
       undefined.

STDIN
       The  standard input shall be used only if one of the file1 or file2 op‐
       erands refers to standard input. See the INPUT FILES section.

INPUT FILES
       The input files shall be text files.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of comm:

       LANG   Provide a default value for the  internationalization  variables
	      that  are	 unset	or  null.  (See the Base Definitions volume of
	      IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section  8.2,  Internationalization	 Vari‐
	      ables  for the precedence of internationalization variables used
	      to determine the values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL If set to a non-empty string value, override the values  of  all
	      the other internationalization variables.

       LC_COLLATE

	      Determine	 the locale for the collating sequence comm expects to
	      have been used when the input files were sorted.

       LC_CTYPE
	      Determine the locale for	the  interpretation  of	 sequences  of
	      bytes  of	 text  data as characters (for example, single-byte as
	      opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).

       LC_MESSAGES
	      Determine the locale that should be used to  affect  the	format
	      and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.

       NLSPATH
	      Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of
	      LC_MESSAGES .

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS
       Default.

STDOUT
       The  comm  utility  shall  produce  output  depending  on  the  options
       selected.  If  the  -1, -2, and -3 options are all selected, comm shall
       write nothing to standard output.

       If the -1 option is not selected, lines contained only in  file1	 shall
       be written using the format:

	      "%s\n", <line in file1>

       If  the	-2  option  is not selected, lines contained only in file2 are
       written using the format:

	      "%s%s\n", <lead>, <line in file2>

       where the string <lead> is as follows:

       <tab>  The -1 option is not selected.

       null string
	      The -1 option is selected.

       If the -3 option is not selected, lines contained in both  files	 shall
       be written using the format:

	      "%s%s\n", <lead>, <line in both>

       where the string <lead> is as follows:

       <tab><tab>
	      Neither the -1 nor the -2 option is selected.

       <tab>  Exactly one of the -1 and -2 options is selected.

       null string
	      Both the -1 and -2 options are selected.

       If  the input files were ordered according to the collating sequence of
       the current locale,  the	 lines	written	 shall	be  in	the  collating
       sequence of the original lines.

STDERR
       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES
       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION
       None.

EXIT STATUS
       The following exit values shall be returned:

	0     All input files were successfully output as specified.

       >0     An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS
       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE
       If the input files are not properly presorted, the output of comm might
       not be useful.

EXAMPLES
       If a file named xcu contains a sorted list of  the  utilities  in  this
       volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  a  file named xpg3 contains a sorted
       list of the utilities specified in the X/Open Portability Guide,	 Issue
       3,  and	a file named svid89 contains a sorted list of the utilities in
       the System V Interface Definition Third Edition:

	      comm -23 xcu xpg3 | comm -23 - svid89

       would print a list of utilities in this volume of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001
       not specified by either of the other documents:

	      comm -12 xcu xpg3 | comm -12 - svid89

       would print a list of utilities specified by all three documents, and:

	      comm -12 xpg3 svid89 | comm -23 - xcu

       would  print  a	list of utilities specified by both XPG3 and the SVID,
       but not specified in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

RATIONALE
       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       cmp, diff, sort, uniq

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in  electronic  form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
       -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX),	The  Open  Group  Base
       Specifications  Issue  6,  Copyright  (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of
       Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open  Group.  In  the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
       is  the	referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
       at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

IEEE/The Open Group		     2003			      COMM(1P)
[top]

List of man pages available for Oracle

Copyright (c) for man pages and the logo by the respective OS vendor.

For those who want to learn more, the polarhome community provides shell access and support.

[legal] [privacy] [GNU] [policy] [cookies] [netiquette] [sponsors] [FAQ]
Tweet
Polarhome, production since 1999.
Member of Polarhome portal.
Based on Fawad Halim's script.
....................................................................
Vote for polarhome
Free Shell Accounts :: the biggest list on the net