INTRODUCTION

latexdiff is a Perl script, which compares two latex files and marks
up significant differences between them (i.e. a diff for latex files).
  Various options are available for visual markup using standard latex 
packages such as "color.sty". Changes not directly affecting visible 
text, for example in formatting commands, are still marked in 
the latex source.
 
A rudimentary revision facilility is provided by another Perl script,
latexrevise, which accepts or rejects all changes.  Manual
editing of the difference file can be used to override this default
behaviour and accept or reject selected changes only.  

The author is F Tilmann (ftilmann@users.berlios.de). 

Project webpage:   http://latexdiff.berlios.de/
CTAN page:          http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/support/latexdiff


REQUIREMENTS

Perl 5.8 or higher must be installed.
  The latexdiff script makes use of the Perl package Algorithm::Diff (available 
from www.cpan.org, current version 1.19). You can either install this package, or
use the standalone version of latexdiff, latexdiff-so, which has version 1.15 of 
this package inlined and does not require external installation of
the package. Because latexdiff uses internal functions of Algorithm:Diff whose 
calling format or availability can change without notice, the preferred method is
now to use the standalone version.

As an alternative, latexdiff-fast has a modified version of Algorithm::Diff inlined,
which internally uses the UNIX diff command.  This version is much faster but is dependent
on an external "diff" command.  Subtle differences in the algorithm of Algorithm::Diff and 
UNIX-diff mean that the resulting set of differences will generally not be the same as
for the standard latexdiff.  In most practical cases, these differences are minor, though.

INSTALLATION UNIX/LINUX

The basic installation procedure is almost trivial:

1. Copy latexdiff, latexrevise and latexdiff-vc into a directory which
   is in the search path and make them executable.  If the Algorithm::Diff
   package is not installed, use latexdiff-so instead of latexdiff. 

2. Copy latexdiff.1 and latexrevise.1 into the correct man directory

3. Optionally create soft links latexdiff-cvs latexdiff-rcs, and
   latexdiff-svn for latexdiff-vc.

The attached Makefile contains example commands to carry out above 
steps as root for a typical UNIX installation. Type 

  make install          (for the stand alone version)
or
  make install-ext      (for the version using the external Algorithm::Diff)
or
  make install-fast     (for the version using the UNIX 'diff' function for fast differencing)

to get it rolling.  You can type

  make test
or
  make test-ext
or
  make test-fast

to test the respective versions on a brief example before installation


DOCUMENTATION:

Usage instructions are in the manual latexdiff-man.pdf as well as the 
man pages.

CHANGELOGS:

Check out the comment lines at the beginning of the perl scripts (latexdiff, latexdiff-vc, latexrevise)

CONTRIBUTIONS

The directory contrib contains code written by others relating to latexdiff.  
Currently this directory contains:

latexdiff-wrap (Author: V. Kuhlmann) An alternative wrapper script which can be used
  instead of latexdiff-vc.  Its main use is as a template for customised wrapper scripts.

latexdiff.spec (Author: T. Doerges) spec file for RPM generation

latexchanges (Author: Jan-Ake Larsson) Wrapper script for applying latexdiff with numbered documen version 
(see contrib/README.latexchanges for a more detailed description)

Cntributions by the following authors were incorporated into the latexdiff code, or inspired me to 
extend latexdiff in a similar way: J. Paisley, N. Becker, K. Huebner

LICENSE (also see file COPYING)

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3 as published by
the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details (file LICENSE in the
distribution).