[bug-diffutils] How to ignore blank lines?

[Robert Wenner]

Hello,

is this the right place to ask about how to use diff?
If not please point me in the right direction.


How can I get GNU diff ignore the blank lines in the following
example?

File a:
--- cut here ---
x
do

done
--- cut here ---

File b:
--- cut here ---
x

do
done
--- cut here ---

Neither file has trailing white spaces in any line.

Using GNU diff 3.1 on Mac OS X I get:

diff -w a b
2d1
< do
3a3
> do

Same when I add various promising looking options:

diff --suppress-blank-empty -E -b -w -B -I '^[[:space:]]*$' 
--strip-trailing-cr -i a b
2d1
< do
3a3
> do

What am I missing here?

diff --version
diff (GNU diffutils) 3.1

Thanks,

Robert