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When I use "diff" to find the difference between two large data files, 

diff A.txt B.txt > dif.info

it is output:

diff:memory exhausted

or add the argument "-H"

diff -H A.txt B.txt > dif.info

it also got the same message:

diff:memory exhausted

The size are about 1.5GB. How to compare large files ? Any other tools or solutions ? my PC: Redhat5.4 OS, 4GB memory. Thanks.

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  • The most simple solution would be to add more RAM (which is really cheap these days), assuming a 64 bits Linux. Otherwise try to split the files in smaller chunks. Perhaps add some more swap.
    – Basile Starynkevitch
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 13:58
  • any other software or script to handle large file?
    – Dong
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 14:05
  • What exactly are you trying to do, what do the files look like?
    – terdon
    Commented Dec 7, 2012 at 15:43

2 Answers 2

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4

One idea would be to use split on both files and compare each chunk. It will not be exactly the same, but it all depends on what you are looking for.

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try installing the textproc/2bsd-diff port

http://www.freshports.org/textproc/2bsd-diff/

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