The command-line syntax is like gzip, with the additional option -s SOURCE.
Like gzip, -d means to decompress. The default mode (-e) is to compress.
For output, -c and -f flags behave likewise (use standard output, force overwrite).
Unlike gzip, xdelta3 defaults to stdout (instead of having an automatic extension).
Without -s SOURCE, xdelta3 behaves like gzip for stdin/stdout purposes.
Compress examples:
xdelta3 -s SOURCE TARGET > OUT
xdelta3 -s SOURCE TARGET OUT
xdelta3 -s SOURCE < TARGET > OUT
Decompress examples:
xdelta3 -d -s SOURCE OUT > TARGET
xdelta3 -d -s SOURCE OUT TARGET
xdelta3 -d -s SOURCE < OUT > TARGET
There are several special command names, such as xdelta3 printdelta
and xdelta3 test
.
usage: xdelta3 [command/options] [input [output]]
special command names:
config prints xdelta3 configuration
decode decompress the input
encode compress the input
test run the builtin tests
special commands for VCDIFF inputs:
printdelta print information about the entire delta
printhdr print information about the first window
printhdrs print information about all windows
standard options:
-0 .. -9 compression level
-c use stdout
-d decompress
-e compress
-f force overwrite
-h show help
-q be quiet
-v be verbose (max 2)
-V show version
memory options:
-B bytes source window size
-W bytes input window size
compression options:
-s source source file to copy from (if any)
-S [djw|fgk] enable/disable secondary compression
-N disable small string-matching compression
-D disable external decompression (encode/decode)
-R disable external recompression (decode)
-n disable checksum (encode/decode)
-C soft config (encode, undocumented)
-A [apphead] disable/provide application header (encode)
The -A
flag may be used to set application-specific data in the VCDIFF header (you may view with xdelta3 printhdr
). By default, the application-specific data includes the source and input filenames, as well as descriptors to help with ExternalCompression. You can disable the application header with -A=
.