The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
Copyright © 2001-2004 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights reserved.

#### NAME

> comm - select or reject lines common to two files

#### SYNOPSIS

> ``comm` [`-123`] file1 file2`

#### DESCRIPTION

> The comm utility shall 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 lines in both files are not ordered according to the collating sequence of the current locale, the results are unspecified.

#### OPTIONS

> The comm utility shall conform to the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 12.2, Utility Syntax Guidelines.

> The following options shall be 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 shall be supported:

> file1
>   A pathname of the first file to be compared. If file1 is `'-'`, the standard input shall be used.
> file2
>   A pathname of the second file to be compared. If file2 is `'-'`, the standard input shall be used.

> If both file1 and file2 refer to standard input or to the same FIFO special, block special, or character special file, the results are undefined.

#### STDIN

> The standard input shall be used only if one of the file1 or file2 operands refers to standard input. See the INPUT FILES section.

#### INPUT FILES

> The input files shall be text files.

#### ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

> The following environment variables shall affect the execution of comm:

> LANG
>   Provide a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. (See the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, Section 8.2, Internationalization Variables for the precedence of internationalization variables used to determine the values of locale categories.)
> LC_ALL
>   If set to a non-empty string value, override the values of all the other internationalization variables.
> LC_COLLATE
>   Determine the locale for the collating sequence comm expects to have been used when the input files were sorted.
> LC_CTYPE
>   Determine the locale for the interpretation of sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte characters in arguments and input files).
> LC_MESSAGES
>   Determine the locale that should be used to affect the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error.
> NLSPATH
>   [XSI] Determine the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES .

#### ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS

> Default.

#### STDOUT

> The comm utility shall produce output depending on the options selected. If the -1, -2, and -3 options are all selected, comm shall write nothing to standard output.

> If the -1 option is not selected, lines contained only in file1 shall be written using the format:

>     "%s\n", <line in file1>

> If the -2 option is not selected, lines contained only in file2 are written using the format:

>     "%s%s\n", <lead>, <line in file2>

> where the string <lead> is as follows:

> <tab>
>   The -1 option is not selected.
> null string
>   The -1 option is selected.

> If the -3 option is not selected, lines contained in both files shall be written using the format:

>     "%s%s\n", <lead>, <line in both>

> where the string <lead> is as follows:

> <tab><tab>
>   Neither the -1 nor the -2 option is selected.
> <tab>
>   Exactly one of the -1 and -2 options is selected.
> null string
>   Both the -1 and -2 options are selected.

> If the input files were ordered according to the collating sequence of the current locale, the lines written shall be in the collating sequence of the original lines.

#### STDERR

> The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

#### OUTPUT FILES

> None.

#### EXTENDED DESCRIPTION

> None.

#### EXIT STATUS

> The following exit values shall be returned:

> 0
>   All input files were successfully output as specified.
> >0
>   An error occurred.

#### CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS

> Default.

The following sections are informative.

#### APPLICATION USAGE

> If the input files are not properly presorted, the output of comm might not be useful.

#### EXAMPLES

> If a file named xcu contains a sorted list of the utilities in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, a file named xpg3 contains a sorted list of the utilities specified in the X/Open Portability Guide, Issue 3, and a file named svid89 contains a sorted list of the utilities in the System V Interface Definition Third Edition:

>     comm -23 xcu xpg3 | comm -23 - svid89

> would print a list of utilities in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 not specified by either of the other documents:

>     comm -12 xcu xpg3 | comm -12 - svid89

> would print a list of utilities specified by all three documents, and:

>     comm -12 xpg3 svid89 | comm -23 - xcu

> would print a list of utilities specified by both XPG3 and the SVID, but not specified in this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001.

#### RATIONALE

> None.

#### FUTURE DIRECTIONS

> None.

#### SEE ALSO

> cmp, diff, sort, uniq

#### CHANGE HISTORY

> First released in Issue 2.

#### Issue 6

> The normative text is reworded to avoid use of the term "must" for application requirements.

End of informative text.

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