Handling missing: see the idbdelete man page Handling extra 1) remove all symval, mach, exitop, postop, preop, config be careful when removing them (using /symval(.*)/ may remove too much - use the following: :g/symval([^)]*)/s/// 2) leave in nostrip and any idb tags 3) remove extra blanks: :g/ /s// /g Do this a few times until no more matches and all trailing balnks: :g/ $/s/// 4) sort them as done in the idb file 5) add appropriate IDB tags 6) merge into idb