Usage ExpansionDiff

nsdiff <expansionSettings_1> <expansionSettings_2> [OPTIONS]

Argument	Description
`expansionSettings_1`	Path to the "before" expansionSettings file.
`expansionSettings_2`	Path to the "after" expansionSettings file.

If both expansion settings files point to the same expansion directory, the tool logs a message and exits immediately, since no diffs could ever be found in that case.

Options

Option	Default	Description
`-f, --pomXml <file>`	`pom.xml`	Pom file to expand with.
`--skipExpansion`	`false`	Skip expansion and only compare the (already expanded) output directories.
`--noCleanExpansion`	`false`	Run the expansions without the clean flag, instead of the default clean expansion.
`-e, --exclude <pattern>`	(none)	Filter out files matching a glob pattern (relative file path). See Excluded files
`--simplify`	`false`	Reduce the number of diffs for the same expander by grouping diffs that have the same size together.
`--merge`	`false`	Collapse all diffs for the same expander into a single entry.
`--format <AUTO\|DIFF\|MARKDOWN>`	`AUTO`	Output format. `AUTO` picks `MARKDOWN` when the output file ends in `.md`, and `DIFF` otherwise (including when writing to the console).
`-o, --output <file>`	(none)	File to write the output to. If omitted, the output is written to stdout. When the format resolves to `MARKDOWN` and the file name doesn't already end in `.md`, that extension is appended automatically. Parent directories are created if needed.
`-h, --help`		Prints documentation.
`-V, --version`		Prints the version of the application.

Examples

Compare two expansion settings files, expanding both first, and print the diff to the console:

nsdiff conf/expansionSettings.xml conf/revisedExpansionSettings.xml

Write the result as a Markdown report:

nsdiff conf/expansionSettings.xml conf/revisedExpansionSettings.xml -o report.md

Ignore javascript files:

nsdiff conf/expansionSettings.xml conf/revisedExpansionSettings.xml -e "*.js"

Group similar diffs from the same expander into a single entry:

nsdiff conf/expansionSettings.xml conf/revisedExpansionSettings.xml --simplify

Excluded files

Use the -e, --exclude <pattern> option to exclude files using a glob pattern. Supports *, **, ? and comma-separated alternatives, e.g. **/*.log,**/generated/**.

Some file types are not possible to diff and some directories contain diffs that are not relevant. Therefore files such as binaries and some directories are excluded regardless of the --exclude option. Below is a list of these default exclusions:

File extensions: .bin, .bmp, .doc, .docx, .eot, .gif, .ico, .jpeg, .jpg, .otf, .odt, .pdf, .pfx, .png, .tar.gz, .tiff, .ttf, .webm, .webp, .woff, .woff2, .zip
Directories (path contains): /struts/styles/, /struts/js/lib/, /struts/images/, /target/, /.expansion-manifest/

Output

Here is an example of the markdown output.

File Diffs

original: conf\expansionSettings.xml
revised: conf\expansionSettings_revised.xml
File exclusion pattern: ``
Default excluded file extensions: .bin, .bmp, .doc, .docx, .eot, .gif, .ico, .jpeg, .jpg, .otf, .odt, .pdf, .pfx, .png, .tar.gz, .tiff, .ttf, .webm, .webp, .woff, .woff2, .zip
Default excluded directories: /struts/styles/, /struts/js/lib/, /struts/images/, /target/, /.expansion-manifest/
113 different files

Diff DataAccessData.java

original expander: net.democritus.expander.jpa.dataElement.DataExpander
revised expander: net.democritus.expander.jpa.dataElement.DataExpander
similar files: 81

--- <applicationName>/components/account/data/gen/jpa/src/net/democritus/acl/DataAccessData.java
+++ <applicationName>/components/account/data/gen/jpa/src/net/democritus/acl/DataAccessData.java
@@ -2,11 +2,10 @@

 // expanded with nsx-expanders:8.5.0, expansionResource net.democritus:data-layer-jpa-expanders:1.6.0

+// anchor:imports:start
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import net.democritus.sys.DataRef;
-
-// anchor:imports:start
 import javax.persistence.Entity;
 import javax.persistence.Table;
 import javax.persistence.Column;

Diff pom.xml

original expander: net.democritus.expander.maven.application.ApplicationRootPomExpander
revised expander: net.democritus.expander.maven.application.ApplicationRootPomExpander
similar files: 0

--- <applicationName>/pom.xml
+++ <applicationName>/pom.xml
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@

   <properties>
     <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
-    <expanders.version>9.2.0</expanders.version>
+    <expanders.version>9.5.0</expanders.version>
     <!-- @anchor:properties:start -->
     <javaee.version>8.0.1</javaee.version>
     <falcon-logic-cruds-repository.version>1.2.0</falcon-logic-cruds-repository.version>
@@ -371,13 +371,13 @@
       <dependency>
         <groupId>net.democritus</groupId>
         <artifactId>application-shared-menu</artifactId>
-        <version>9.2.0</version>
+        <version>9.5.0</version>
         <scope>compile</scope>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
         <groupId>net.democritus</groupId>
         <artifactId>application-shared-common</artifactId>
-        <version>9.2.0</version>
+        <version>9.5.0</version>
         <scope>compile</scope>
       </dependency>
       <dependency>
@@ -431,7 +431,7 @@
       <dependency>
         <groupId>net.democritus</groupId>
         <artifactId>web-shared-servlets</artifactId>
-        <version>2026.0.0</version>
+        <version>2026.5.0</version>
         <scope>compile</scope>
       </dependency>

...

Options​

Examples​

Excluded files​

Output​