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[This other answer][1] uses process substitutions. Not every shell supports this feature. *If* your OS provides pathnames for file descriptors (`/dev/fd/N` or `/proc/self/fd/N`) then you can use them to achieve the desired result without process substitution and without temporary files:

    ls /home/alice | { ls /home/bob | diff /dev/fd/4 -; } 4<&0 </dev/null

The result of `ls /home/alice` would be piped to the next command (group of commands `{ }` in our case) via stdin of the next command, but we make it available as file descriptor 4 (`4<&0`). We also redirect stdin to `/dev/null` in case something tries to read from it while it shouldn't. In our case this "something" is the second `ls`. While `ls` does not try to read from its stdin, in general a command may.

Now the result of `ls /home/alice` is available to `diff` via its file descriptor 4. By passing `/dev/fd/4` as an operand we tell `diff` to use the file (pipe in this case) associated with the descriptor. Note in some systems opening `/dev/fd/4` results in duplicating the descriptor (i.e. referring to the same [open file description][2]), but in other systems (particularly in Linux) opening `/dev/fd/4` results in opening the file *anew* (i.e. creating a fresh new open file description). In our case this nuance does not matter, our command should work either way.

The result of `ls /home/bob` is piped to `diff` via its stdin. By `-` we tell `diff` to read from its stdin. Note `-` means "stdin" only because `diff` interprets `-` this way. Not all commands interpret `-` as "stdin", so in general you may want to use `/dev/fd/0`.

  [1]: https://linux.codidact.com/posts/288328/288329#answer-288329
  [2]: https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap03.html#tag_03_258