NAME
    merge - three-way file merge

SYNOPSIS
    merge [ options ] file1 file2 file3

DESCRIPTION
    merge incorporates all  changes that lead from file2 to file3 into
    file1. The result ordinarily goes into file1. merge is useful for
    combining separate changes to an original. Suppose file2 is the origi-
    nal, and both file1 and file3 are modifications of file2.  Then  merge
    combines both changes.

    A conflict occurs if both file1 and file3 have changes in a common seg-
    ment of lines. If a conflict is found, merge normally outputs a  warn-
    ing and brackets the conflict with <<<<<<< and >>>>>>> lines. A typi-
    cal conflict will look like this:

    <<<<<<< file A
    lines in file A
    =======
    lines in file B
    >>>>>>> file B

    If there are conflicts, the user should edit the result and delete one
    of the alternatives.

OPTIONS
    -A   Output conflicts using the -A style of diff3(1), if supported by
    diff3. This merges all changes leading from file2 to file3 into
    file1, and generates the most verbose output.

    -E, -e These options specify conflict styles that generate less infor-
    mation than -A. See diff3(1) for details. The default is -E.
    With -e, merge does not warn about conflicts.

    -L label
    This option may be given up to three times, and specifies labels
    to be used in place of the corresponding file names in conflict
    reports.  That is, merge -L x -L y -L z a b c generates output
    that looks like it came from files x, y and z instead of from
    files a, b and c.

    -p   Send results to standard output instead of overwriting file1.

    -q   Quiet; do not warn about conflicts. -V Print 's version number.

DIAGNOSTICS
    Exit status is 0 for no conflicts, 1 for some conflicts, 2 for trouble.

IDENTIFICATION
    Author: Walter F. Tichy.
    Manual Page Revision: 5.7; Release Date: 1995/06/01.
    Copyright (C) 1982, 1988, 1989 Walter F. Tichy.
    Copyright (C) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 Paul Eggert.

SEE ALSO
   diff3(1),diff(1),rcsmerge(1),co(1).

BUGS
    It normally does not make sense to merge binary files as if they were
    text, but merge tries to do it anyway.