UUDIFF(1C)

NAME
uudiff - directory comparison between machines

SYNOPSIS
uudiff [ -d ] local-name remote-name

DESCRIPTION
Uudiff compares the files in the directory local-name and the directory remote-name, (where remote-name may be of the form system-name!directory-name and system-name is a uucp Unix name). It reports (via mail) which files are added, deleted, or changed, and provides a diff(1) of altered printable files.

If a part of remote-name is omitted (either the system or the directory) the corresponding part of local-name is used. If local-name is a file, rather than a directory, remote-name is also assumed to be a file and the program degenerates into diff(1).

The option -d does not diff altered files; only the summary by file names is prepared.

FILES
Lots. Files zz[abcdeglmn]????? are used for scratch space; files brought back from the remote machine for diffing are stored (and left around) as name.????? and the final report is left in uudiff.????? (the exact name is reported by mail).

SEE ALSO
diff(1), uucp(1)

DIAGNOSTICS
Almost none. Anything more serious than misspelling local-name causes unpredictable and obscure results.

BUGS
In addition to the standard uucp requirements a hook is needed at the remote system, and at present is only installed on the systems "research" and "inter".
This program is written in shell and should be translated to C so it could give diagnostics.
Even if "remote-system" is the local system, uudiff is subject to delays in uucp traffic.
It should probably write the standard output, instead of insisting on going into the background.
Since checksums are used there is a probability of 1 in 2**32 of missing differences between files.
The ~userid syntax is not recognized.