(Type: Boolean, Default: FALSE)

<$.COMPARE option>

── $.COMPARE ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤

The $.COMPARE option flags instances in which lines from two different patches are adjacent or interleaved at the same point in the source.

This option causes the PATCH utility to print a report comparing the PATCH utility input with the TAPE file. All patch records are listed. Source lines from TAPE are shown if they are deleted by the patch or if they appear immediately before or after a newly inserted line. Each line in the patch is identified in the right-most column of the report. Simple patch lines have the ordinal patch number; moved, resequenced, or inserted lines are identified with the original patch number—or as SOURCE—and with the modifying patch number. If lines from more than one patch fall adjacent to each other with no intervening unmodified TAPE source lines, the final column is prefixed with a right angle bracket (>) character. These second-order conflicts often require investigation.

Because all $ records from the patch decks are shown in the $.COMPARE listing, the same flags appear if one patch makes insertions into an area voided by an earlier patch. If $.BRIEF is TRUE, the listing of deleted sections of the TAPE file is abridged.

The $.COMPARE option or the $.LISTD option can be SET to list the patch delimiter $# records but not the bodies of the patches. A COMPARE listing is produced only if the final value of $.COMPARE is TRUE. However, any time that $.COMPARE is TRUE while $.LISTP is FALSE during the input phase, patch delimiter records are listed as if $.LISTD were TRUE. Refer to “$.LISTD Option” in this section.