ted from file.readlines() result in diffs that are suitable for file.writelines() since both the inputs and outputs have trailing newlines. For inputs that do not have trailing newlines, set the lineterm argument to "" so that the output will be uniformly newline free. The context diff format normally has a header for filenames and modification times. Any or all of these may be specified using strings for 'fromfile', 'tofile', 'fromfiledate', and 'tofiledate'. The modification times are normally expressed in the ISO 8601 format. If not specified, the strings default to blanks. Example: >>> print(''.join(context_diff('one\ntwo\nthree\nfour\n'.splitlines(True), ... 'zero\none\ntree\nfour\n'.splitlines(True), 'Original', 'Current')), ... end="") *** Original --- Current *************** *** 1,4 **** one ! two ! three four --- 1,4 ---- + zero one ! tree four r