The DIFFERENCES command compares the contents of two files. If CMS finds differences, it creates a file named first-file-name.DIF in your current default directory (unless /OUTPUT is in effect.) If the files are the same, it issues a message to that effect and does not create a differences file. By default, CMS compares two files that are not located in a CMS library. However, you can direct CMS to use element generations from the current library by specifying the /GENERATION qualifier on one or both of the file name parameters. Note: If both file1 and file2 are element generations, both generations must reside in the same library of the search list or an error will occur. A difference is defined as one of the following: o A line or lines that are in one file and not in the other. o A replacement of n lines by m lines (n may or may not be equal to m). Only the lines that differ are displayed in the differences file (unless you specify /FULL). A heading at the beginning of the differences file includes the name of the user that issued the command, the date and time the command was issued, and the file specifications of the two files being compared. If you direct CMS to use element generations and you have specified the /FORMAT option generation-differences, the differences listing contains a section labeled "Generation Differences" that contains the replacement history for the element. Each generation used in the comparison is identified by an asterisk (*) in the first column of the transaction record. The differences between the files are contained in a section labeled "Text Differences." By default, each difference is formatted with the line or lines from the first file followed by the differing line or lines from the second file. If a difference consists of a line or lines in one file but not the other, only the lines from the file containing the additional text are displayed. If you specify the /SKIP, /SENTINEL, and /IGNORE qualifiers on the same command line, they are processed in the following order: (1) /IGNORE=HISTORY (2) /IGNORE=NOTES (3) /SKIP (4) /SENTINEL (5) /IGNORE options other than HISTORY or NOTES For example, if you specify /SKIP=5 and /SENTINEL=("sushi","bar"), DIFFERENCES disregards the first 5 lines in each of the compared files, and then searches the remainder of each file for the sentinel character strings "sushi" and "bar".