diff

• IPA^(key): /dɪf/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪf

diff (plural diffs)

1. (slang) Clipping of difference.

   A peach and an apricot? What's the diff?

   • 1960, Walt Kelly, Pogo, Sunday, March 13 comic strip (→ISBN, p. 277):

     [Pogo:] A woman outthunk is a woman scorned and you know what's got no fury like that! [...] Mus' I tell you? It's Sunday.
     [Albert:] What's the diff? Tell away.
     [Pogo, whispering:] Hell.

2. (computing) Any program which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
3. (computing) The output of a diff program, a diff file.
   • 2004, Paul Graham, Great Hackers, Essay:

     I didn't want to waste people's time telling them things they already knew. It's more efficient just to give them the diffs.

4. (automotive) Abbreviation of differential: the differential gear in an automobile.
   • 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 45:

     Many operators cursed the early diff and driveline set-ups[.]

5. (medicine) Abbreviation of differential: differential of types of white blood cell in a complete blood count.
6. (rock climbing) A difficult route.

diff (third-person singular simple present diffs, present participle diffing, simple past and past participle diffed)

1. (transitive, computing) To run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.
   • 2011, Gray Hat Hacking : The Ethical Hacker's Handbook‎, 3rd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, OCLC 702674486, page 484:

     As we move through this chapter, you will quickly see the benefits of diffing code changes to drivers, libraries, and applications.

2. (transitive, computing) To compare two files or other objects, manually or otherwise.

diff

1. (computing) A program, historically part of the Unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.

• (computing): delta, patch