SVN Functions
PHP Manual

svn_diff

Recursively diffs two paths

Description

array svn_diff(
    string $path1,
    int $rev1,
    string $path2,
    int $rev2
)

Recursively diffs two paths, path1 and path2.

Note:

This is not a general-purpose diff utility. Only local files that are versioned may be diffed: other files will fail.

Parameters

path1

First path to diff. This can be a URL to a file/directory in an SVN repository or a local file/directory path.

Note: Relative paths will be resolved as if the current working directory was the one that contains the PHP binary. To use the calling script's working directory, use realpath or dirname(__FILE__).

Warning

If a local file path has only backslashes and no forward slashes, this extension will fail to find the path. Always replace all backslashes with forward slashes when using this function.

rev1

First path's revision number. Use SVN_REVISION_HEAD to specify the most recent revision.

path2

Second path to diff. See path1 for description.

rev2

Second path's revision number. See rev1 for description.

Return Values

Returns an array-list consisting of two streams: the first is the diff output and the second contains error stream output. The streams can be read using fread. Returns false or null on error.

The diff output will, by default, be in the form of Subversion's custom unified diff format, but an » external diff engine may be used depending on Subversion's configuration.

Examples

Example #1 Basic example

This example demonstrates the basic usage of this function, and the retrieval of contents from the stream: 

<?php
list($diff, $errors) = svn_diff(
    'http://www.example.com/svnroot/trunk/foo', SVN_REVISION_HEAD,
    'http://www.example.com/svnroot/branches/dev/foo', SVN_REVISION_HEAD
);
if (!$diff) exit;
$contents = '';
while (!feof($diff)) {
  $contents .= fread($diff, 8192);
}
fclose($diff);
fclose($errors);
var_dump($contents);
?>

The above example will output:

Index: http://www.example.com/svnroot/trunk/foo
===================================================================
--- http://www.example.com/svnroot/trunk/foo        (.../foo) (revision 23)
+++ http://www.example.com/svnroot/branches/dev/foo (.../foo) (revision 27)
 // further diff output

Example #2 Diffing two revisions of a repository path

This example implements a wrapper function that allows a user to easily diff two revisions of the same item using an external repository path (the default syntax is somewhat verbose): 

<?php
function svn_diff_same_item($path, $rev1, $rev2) {
    return svn_diff($path, $rev1, $path, $rev2);
}
?>

Example #3 Portably diffing two local files

This example implements a wrapper function that portably diffs two local files, compensating for the realpath fix and the backslashes bug: 

<?php
function svn_diff_local($path1, $rev1, $path2, $rev2) {
    $path1 = str_replace('\\', '/', realpath($path1));
    $path2 = str_replace('\\', '/', realpath($path2));
    return svn_diff($path1, $rev1, $path2, $rev2);
}
?>

Notes

Warning

This function is EXPERIMENTAL. The behaviour of this function, its name, and surrounding documentation may change without notice in a future release of PHP. This function should be used at your own risk.