Node:Creating and Removing, Next:Patching Time Stamps, Previous:Imperfect, Up:Merging with patch
Sometimes when comparing two directories, a file may exist in one
directory but not the other. If you give diff
the
-N
or --new-file
option, or if you supply an old or
new file that is named /dev/null
or is empty and is dated the
Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC), diff
outputs a patch that
adds or deletes the contents of this file. When given such a patch,
patch
normally creates a new file or removes the old file.