how can I diff two sections of the same file?

Question

I have a source file with two similar yet subtly different sections. I\'d like to merge the two sections into one subroutine with a parameter that handles the subtle difference

Answer 1

i chose to rework @ordnungswidrig's answer into a bash function (i was only interested in the differences from a single file, but this could easily be changed to handle two different files...):

# find differences within a file giving start and end lines for both sections
function diff_sections {
  local fname=`basename $1`;
  local tempfile=`mktemp -t $fname`;
  head -$3 $1 | tail +$2 > $tempfile && head -$5 $1 | tail +$4 | diff -u $tempfile - ;
  rm $tempfile;
}

you call the function like so... diff_sections path/to/file 464 483 485 506