COMM(1) BSD Reference Manual COMM(1)NAME
comm - select or reject lines common to two files
SYNOPSIS
comm [-123] file1 file2
DESCRIPTION
The comm utility reads file1 and file2, which should be sorted lexically,
and produces three text columns as output: lines only in file1; lines on-
ly in file2; and lines in both files.
The filename ``-'' means the standard input.
The following options are available:
-1 Suppress printing of column 1.
-2 Suppress printing of column 2.
-3 Suppress printing of column 3.
Each column will have a number of tab characters prepended to it equal to
the number of lower numbered columns that are being printed. For exam-
ple, if column number two is being suppressed, lines printed in column
number one will not have any tabs preceding them, and lines printed in
column number three will have one.
Comm assumes that the files are lexically sorted; all characters partici-
pate in line comparisons.
Comm exits 0 on success, >0 if an error occurred.
SEE ALSOcmp(1), diff(1), sort(1), uniq(1)STANDARDS
The comm command is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible.
BSDI BSD/OS June 6, 1993 1