how to color the output for two different strings in two different files in Bash

Question

I have two files that will always hold different strings, I want to know a way to print out everything in those two files and highlight only the differences between them.

$cat file1.txt
fox:1
bike:3
beer:21

$cat file2.txt
fox:1
beer:22
bike:3

$pr -m -t file1.txt file2.txt
fox:1                         fox:1
beer:21                       bike:3
bike:3                        beer:22

I want beer:21 beer:22 to be highlighted in red. keep in mind that beerstring is not always there in one of the files or existed but in a different name like apple:0

Diff will output only the difference between the two files, and I want the difference highlighted along with he rest of the output. Correct me if I’m wrong — Noor, May 23 '18 at 04:07
I haven't tried `diff` on this operation because the output is now what I want.. — Noor, May 23 '18 at 04:36
Maybe this is what you want : https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/79135/is-there-a-condensed-side-by-side-diff-format — gzh, May 23 '18 at 04:45
A method for coloring diff's output is given in this post: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/196565/how-to-color-diff-output — builder-7000, May 23 '18 at 05:21
both answers above didn't work, due to the system I have is not allowed me to install `icdiff` , same to `diff -y` also the output remained the same color. — Noor, May 23 '18 at 05:23

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered May 23 '18 at 06:30

4

You can use diff and set color for changed lines:

diff --old-group-format=$'\e[0;31m%<\e[0m' 
     --new-group-format=$'\e[0;31m%>\e[0m'      
     --unchanged-group-format=$'\e[0;32m%=\e[0m'    file1 file2

answered May 23 '18 at 06:30

Farvardin

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I tried that, but can I make it side by side? Because the -y doesn’t work with this, do you know to? – Noor May 23 '18 at 07:51

how to color the output for two different strings in two different files in Bash

1 Answers1