dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

Merge(3pm)            User Contributed Perl Documentation           Merge(3pm)

NAME
       Algorithm::Merge - Three-way merge and diff

SYNOPSIS
        use Algorithm::Merge qw(merge diff3 traverse_sequences3);

        @merged = merge(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      CONFLICT => sub { }
                  });

        @merged = merge(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      CONFLICT => sub { }
                  }, $key_generation_function);

        $merged = merge(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      CONFLICT => sub { }
                  });

        $merged = merge(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      CONFLICT => sub { }
                  }, $key_generation_function);

        @diff   = diff3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b);

        @diff   = diff3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, $key_generation_function);

        $diff   = diff3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b);

        $diff   = diff3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, $key_generation_function);

        @trav   = traverse_sequences3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      # callbacks
                  });

        @trav   = traverse_sequences3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      # callbacks
                  }, $key_generation_function);

        $trav   = traverse_sequences3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      # callbacks
                  });

        $trav   = traverse_sequences3(\@ancestor, \@a, \@b, {
                      # callbacks
                  }, $key_generation_function);

USAGE
       This module complements Algorithm::Diff by providing three-way merge
       and diff functions.

       In this documentation, the first list to "diff3", "merge", and
       "traverse_sequences3" is called the `original' list.  The second list
       is the `left' list.  The third list is the `right' list.

       The optional key generation arguments are the same as in
       Algorithm::Diff.  See Algorithm::Diff for more information.

   diff3
       Given references to three lists of items, "diff3" performs a three-way
       difference.

       This function returns an array of operations describing how the left
       and right lists differ from the original list.  In scalar context, this
       function returns a reference to such an array.

       Perhaps an example would be useful.

       Given the following three lists,

         original: a b c   e f   h i   k
             left: a b   d e f g   i j k
            right: a b c d e     h i j k

            merge: a b   d e   g   i j k

       we have the following result from diff3:

        [ 'u', 'a',   'a',   'a' ],
        [ 'u', 'b',   'b',   'b' ],
        [ 'l', 'c',   undef, 'c' ],
        [ 'o', undef, 'd',   'd' ],
        [ 'u', 'e',   'e',   'e' ],
        [ 'r', 'f',   'f',   undef ],
        [ 'o', 'h',   'g',   'h' ],
        [ 'u', 'i',   'i',   'i' ],
        [ 'o', undef, 'j',   'j' ],
        [ 'u', 'k',   'k',   'k' ]

       The first element in each row is the array with the difference:

        c - conflict (no two are the same)
        l - left is different
        o - original is different
        r - right is different
        u - unchanged

       The next three elements are the lists from the original, left, and
       right arrays respectively that the row refers to (in the synopsis,
       these are @ancestor, @a, and @b, respectively).

   merge
       Given references to three lists of items, "merge" performs a three-way
       merge.  The "merge" function uses the "diff3" function to do most of
       the work.

       The only callback currently used is "CONFLICT" which should be a
       reference to a subroutine that accepts two array references.  The first
       array reference is to a list of elements from the left list.  The
       second array reference is to a list of elements from the right list.
       This callback should return a list of elements to place in the merged
       list in place of the conflict.

       The default "CONFLICT" callback returns the following:

        q{<!-- ------ START CONFLICT ------ -->},
        (@left),
        q{<!-- ---------------------------- -->},
        (@right),
        q{<!-- ------  END  CONFLICT ------ -->},

   traverse_sequences3
       This is the workhorse function that goes through the three sequences
       and calls the callback functions.

       The following callbacks are supported.

       NO_CHANGE
           This is called if all three sequences have the same element at the
           current position.  The arguments are the current positions within
           each sequence, the first argument being the current position within
           the first sequence.

       A_DIFF
           This is called if the first sequence is different than the other
           two sequences at the current position.  This callback will be
           called with one, two, or three arguments.

           If one argument, then only the element at the given position from
           the first sequence is not in either of the other two sequences.

           If two arguments, then there is no element in the first sequence
           that corresponds to the elements at the given positions in the
           second and third sequences.

           If three arguments, then the element at the given position in the
           first sequence is different than the corresponding element in the
           other two sequences, but the other two sequences have corresponding
           elements.

       B_DIFF
           This is called if the second sequence is different than the other
           two sequences at the current position.  This callback will be
           called with one, two, or three arguments.

           If one argument, then only the element at the given position from
           the second sequence is not in either of the other two sequences.

           If two arguments, then there is no element in the second sequence
           that corresponds to the elements at the given positions in the
           first and third sequences.

           If three arguments, then the element at the given position in the
           second sequence is different than the corresponding element in the
           other two sequences, but the other two sequences have corresponding
           elements.

       C_DIFF
           This is called if the third sequence is different than the other
           two sequences at the current position.  This callback will be
           called with one, two, or three arguments.

           If one argument, then only the element at the given position from
           the third sequence is not in either of the other two sequences.

           If two arguments, then there is no element in the third sequence
           that corresponds to the elements at the given positions in the
           first and second sequences.

           If three arguments, then the element at the given position in the
           third sequence is different than the corresponding element in the
           other two sequences, but the other two sequences have corresponding
           elements.

       CONFLICT
           This is called if all three sequences have different elements at
           the current position.  The three arguments are the current
           positions within each sequence.

BUGS
       Most assuredly there are bugs.  If a pattern similar to the above
       example does not work, send it to <jsmith@cpan.org> or report it on
       <http://rt.cpan.org/>, the CPAN bug tracker.

       Algorithm::Diff's implementation of "traverse_sequences" may not be
       symmetric with respect to the input sequences if the second and third
       sequence are of different lengths.  Because of this,
       "traverse_sequences3" will calculate the diffs of the second and third
       sequences as passed and swapped.  If the differences are not the same,
       it will issue an `Algorithm::Diff::diff is not symmetric for second and
       third sequences...' warning.  It will try to handle this, but there may
       be some cases where it can't.

SEE ALSO
       Algorithm::Diff.

AUTHOR
       James G. Smith, <jsmith@cpan.org>

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright (C) 2003, 2007  Texas A&M University.  All Rights Reserved.

       This module is free software; you may redistribute it and/or modify it
       under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.34.0                      2022-10-14                        Merge(3pm)

Generated by dwww version 1.15 on Thu Jun 20 14:22:11 CEST 2024.