When merging/diffing with subversion, can someone explain the difference between --ignore-space-change (-b) and --ignore-all-space (-w) ?

Question

Could someone give me an explanation for these two switches? Are they mutually exclusive? Or -w includes -b?

thanks

Answer 1

Consider 3 lines:

1: "ab"
2: "a b"
3: "a  b"

With -w, all three lines compare the same.
With -b, 2 and 3 compare the same but 1 is considered different.

If you use -w then -b is irrelevant.