---
name: "rfcdiff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "rfcdiff"
version: "1.45-1.1"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/rfcdiff"
---

# rfcdiff(1)

compare RFCs or Internet Drafts or any other text files

## NAME

rfcdiff - compare RFCs or Internet Drafts or any other text files

## DESCRIPTION

-

  rfcdiff \[options\] file1 file2

-

  rfcdiff takes two RFCs or Internet-Drafts in text form as input, and produces output which indicates the differences found in one of various forms, controlled by the options listed below. In all cases, page headers and page footers are stripped before looking for changes.

- **--html**

  Produce side-by-side .html diff (default)

- **--chbars**

  Produce changebar marked .txt output

- **--diff**

  Produce a regular diff output

- **--wdiff**

  Produce paged wdiff output

- **--hwdiff**

  Produce html-wrapped coloured wdiff output

- **--oldcolour** COLOURNAME

  Colour for new file in hwdiff (default is "green")

- **--oldcolor** COLORNAME

  Color for old file in hwdiff (default is "red")

- **--newcolour** COLOURNAME

  Colour for new file in hwdiff (default is "green")

- **--newcolor** COLORNAME

  Color for new file in hwdiff (default is "green")

- **--larger**

  Make difference text in hwdiff slightly larger

- **--browse**

  Show html output in browser

- **--keep**

  Don't delete temporary workfiles

- **--version**

  Show version

- **--help**

  Show this help

- **--info** "Synopsis\|Usage\|Copyright\|Description\|Log"

  Show various info

- **--width** N

  Set a maximum width of N characters for the display of each half of the old/new html diff

- **--linenum**

  Show linenumbers for each line, not only at the start of each change section

- **--body**

  Strip document preamble (title, boilerplate and table of contents) and postamble (Intellectual Property Statement, Disclaimer etc)

- **--nostrip**

  Don't strip headers and footers (or body)

- **--ab-diff**

  Before/After diff, suitable for rfc-editor

**--abdiff**

- **--stdout**

  Send output to stdout instead to a file

## AUTHOR

This manual page was written by Peter Spiess-Knafl \<dev@spiessknafl.at\> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).