Splunk® Enterprise

Search Reference

Splunk Enterprise version 7.2 is no longer supported as of April 30, 2021. See the Splunk Software Support Policy for details. For information about upgrading to a supported version, see How to upgrade Splunk Enterprise.

diff

Description

The diff command mimics *nix diff output and compares two search results at a time by returning the line-by-line difference, or comparison, of the two. The two search results compared are specified by the two position values position1 and position2. These values default to 1 and 2 to compare the first two results.

By default, the text (_raw field) of the two search results is compared. Other fields can be compared by selecting another field using attribute.

Syntax

diff [position1=int] [position2=int] [attribute=string] [diffheader=bool] [context=bool] [maxlen=int]

Optional arguments

position1
Datatype: <int>
Description: Of the table of input search results, selects a specific search result to compare to position2.
Default: position1=1 and refers to the first search result.
position2
Datatype: <int>
Description: Of the table of input search results, selects a specific search result to compare to position1. This value must be greater than position1.
Default: position2=2 and refers to the second search result.
attribute
Datatype: <field>
Description: The field name to be compared between the two search results.
Default: attribute=_raw, which refers to the text of the event or result.
diffheader
Datatype: <bool>
Description: If true, show the traditional diff header, naming the "files" compared. The diff header makes the output a valid diff as would be expected by the programmer command-line patch command.
Default: diffheader=false.
context
Datatype: <bool>
Description: If true, selects context-mode diff output as opposed to the default unified diff output.
Default: context=false, or unified.
maxlen
Datatype: <int>
Description: Controls the maximum content in bytes diffed from the two events. If maxlen=0, there is no limit.
Default: maxlen=100000, which is 100KB.

Examples

Example 1:

Compare the "ip" values of the first and third search results.

... | diff pos1=1 pos2=3 attribute=ip

Example 2:

Compare the 9th search results to the 10th.

... | diff position1=9 position2=10

See also

set

Last modified on 01 April, 2024
delta   entitymerge

This documentation applies to the following versions of Splunk® Enterprise: 7.0.0, 7.0.1, 7.0.2, 7.0.3, 7.0.4, 7.0.5, 7.0.6, 7.0.7, 7.0.8, 7.0.9, 7.0.10, 7.0.11, 7.0.13, 7.1.0, 7.1.1, 7.1.2, 7.1.3, 7.1.4, 7.1.5, 7.1.6, 7.1.7, 7.1.8, 7.1.9, 7.1.10, 7.2.0, 7.2.1, 7.2.2, 7.2.3, 7.2.4, 7.2.5, 7.2.6, 7.2.7, 7.2.8, 7.2.9, 7.2.10, 7.3.0, 7.3.1, 7.3.2, 7.3.3, 7.3.4, 7.3.5, 7.3.6, 7.3.7, 7.3.8, 7.3.9, 8.0.0, 8.0.1, 8.0.2, 8.0.3, 8.0.4, 8.0.5, 8.0.6, 8.0.7, 8.0.8, 8.0.9, 8.0.10, 8.1.0, 8.1.1, 8.1.3, 8.1.4, 8.1.5, 8.1.6, 8.1.7, 8.1.8, 8.1.9, 8.1.11, 8.1.13, 8.2.0, 8.2.1, 8.2.2, 8.2.3, 8.2.4, 8.2.5, 8.2.6, 8.2.7, 8.2.8, 8.2.9, 8.2.10, 8.2.11, 8.2.12, 9.0.0, 9.0.1, 9.0.2, 9.0.3, 9.0.4, 9.0.5, 9.0.6, 9.0.7, 9.0.8, 9.0.9, 9.0.10, 9.1.0, 9.1.1, 9.1.2, 9.1.3, 9.1.4, 9.1.5, 9.1.6, 9.1.7, 9.2.0, 9.2.1, 9.2.2, 9.2.3, 9.2.4, 9.3.0, 9.3.1, 9.3.2, 9.4.0, 8.1.10, 8.1.12, 8.1.14, 8.1.2


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