comm(1)

NAME

     comm - select or reject lines common to two files

SYNOPSIS

     comm [-123] file1 file2

DESCRIPTION

     The comm utility will read file1 and file2, which should  be
     ordered in the current collating sequence, and produce three
     text columns as output: lines only in file1; lines  only  in
     file2; and lines in both files.

     If the input files were ordered according to  the  collating
     sequence of the current locale, the lines written will be in
     the collating sequence of the original lines.  If  not,  the
     results are unspecified.

OPTIONS

     The following options are 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 are supported:

     file1 A path name of the first file to be compared. If file1
           is -, the standard input is used.

     file2 A path name of the second  file  to  be  compared.  If
           file2 is -, the standard input is used.

USAGE

     See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of comm
     when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2
    **31 bytes).

EXAMPLES

     Example 1: Printing a list of utilities specified by files

     If file1, file2, and file3 each contained a sorted  list  of
     utilities:

     example% comm -23 file1 file2  | comm -23 - file3

     would print a list of utilities in file1  not  specified  by
     either of the other files. The entry:

     example% comm -12 file1 file2 | comm -12 - file3

     would print a list  of  utilities  specified  by  all  three
     files. And the entry:

     example% comm -12  file2 file3 | comm -23 -file1

     would print a list of utilities specified by both file2  and
     file3, but not specified in file1.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect the execution of comm: LANG, LC_ALL,
     LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS

     The following exit values are returned:

     0     All input files were successfully output as specified.

     >0    An error occurred.

ATTRIBUTES

     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWesu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Standard                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|

SEE ALSO

     cmp(1),   diff(1),    sort(1),    uniq(1),    attributes(5),
     environ(5), largefile(5), standards(5)