This is well documented in the diff GNU info manuals.
The proposed workaround is to compare checksums (see info doc
or e.g. "http://www.gnu.org/manual/diffutils-2.7/html_node/diff_90.html")=
.

cmp(1) works on large files on some systems (e.g. HP-UX), I don't know
about NetBSD/i386 though since I'm mainly on Sparc, or if it helps in
what you want to do.

--=20
Andreas K=E4h=E4ri


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Cheponis [mailto:mac@Wireless.Com]
> Sent: Thursday, July 12, 2001 5:08 PM
> To: netbsd-help@netbsd.org; port-i386@netbsd.org
> Subject: "diff" loses on large files?
>=20
>=20
> To me, this seems like -serious- "diff" braindamage.    Since=20
> this is GNU
> stuff, I'm not terribly surprised.  But how do I fix this? =20
> Do I have to
> fix it and then submit it back to the GNU project and hope=20
> they accept it,
> and -then- have it fixed in NetBSD?
>=20
> Thanks -Mike
>=20
> $ dmesg|head -6
> NetBSD 1.5.1_BETA2 (GENERIC) #41: Wed May 16 01:28:41 CEST 2001
>     he@nsa.uninett.no:/usr/src/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC
> cpu0: AMD Athlon Model 4 (Thunderbird) (686-class), 1100.12 MHz
> total memory =3D 511 MB
> avail memory =3D 468 MB
> using 6574 buffers containing 26296 KB of memory
>=20
> $ ll *odx
> 3065307 -rw-r--r--  1 mac  user  661,969,123 Jul 11 21:45 bad.odx
> 3065315 -rw-r--r--  1 mac  user  661,969,123 Jul 11 21:45 ok.odx
>=20
> $ diff -H  *odx
> diff: memory exhausted
>=20
> $ diff -v
> diff - GNU diffutils version 2.7
>=20
> $ swapctl -l
> Device      1024-blocks     Used       Avail  Capacity  Priority
> /dev/wd0b     2,098,152        0   2,098,152     0%    0
> /dev/wd2b       614,376        0     614,376     0%    0
> Total         2,712,528        0   2,712,528     0%
>=20
> S>head -3 ok.odx
> 0000000     8b1f    0808    52ca    3b4d    0302    6177   =20
> 2e76    6174
> 0000020     0072    7ddc    7c75    4755    eed7    273e   =20
> 0621    8121
> 0000040     6090    0481    2e0b    4081    5b82    7770   =20
> 9428    5296
>=20
> S>head -3 bad.odx
> 0000000     8b1f    0808    52ca    3b4d    0302    6177   =20
> 2e76    6174
> 0000020     0072    7ddc    7c75    4755    eed7    273e   =20
> 0621    8121
> 0000040     6090    0481    2e0b    4081    5b82    7770   =20
> 9428    5296
>=20
> Both *odx files are the output of a "od -x" of two binary files.
>=20
>=20
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
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