phpman > man > cmp(1)

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⚡ TLDR: cmp (tldr-pages)

Compare two files byte by byte.

Output char and line number of the first difference between two files
cmp {{path/to/file1}} {{path/to/file2}}
Output info of the first difference: char, line number, bytes, and values
cmp {{-b|--print-bytes}} {{path/to/file1}} {{path/to/file2}}
Output the byte numbers and values of every difference
cmp {{-l|--verbose}} {{path/to/file1}} {{path/to/file2}}
Compare files but output nothing, yield only the exit status
cmp {{-s|--quiet}} {{path/to/file1}} {{path/to/file2}}

CMP(1) User Commands CMP(1)

NAME
cmp - compare two files byte by byte

SYNOPSIS
cmp [OPTION]... FILE1 [FILE2 [SKIP1 [SKIP2]]]

DESCRIPTION
Compare two files byte by byte.

The optional SKIP1 and SKIP2 specify the number of bytes to skip at the beginning of each
file (zero by default).

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-b, --print-bytes
print differing bytes

-i, --ignore-initial=SKIP
skip first SKIP bytes of both inputs

-i, --ignore-initial=SKIP1:SKIP2
skip first SKIP1 bytes of FILE1 and first SKIP2 bytes of FILE2

-l, --verbose
output byte numbers and differing byte values

-n, --bytes=LIMIT
compare at most LIMIT bytes

-s, --quiet, --silent
suppress all normal output

--help display this help and exit

-v, --version
output version information and exit

SKIP values may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes: kB 1000, K 1024, MB
1,000,000, M 1,048,576, GB 1,000,000,000, G 1,073,741,824, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

If a FILE is '-' or missing, read standard input. Exit status is 0 if inputs are the same, 1
if different, 2 if trouble.

AUTHOR
Written by Torbjorn Granlund and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
Report bugs to: bug-diffutils AT gnu.org
GNU diffutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>

COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later
<https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to
the extent permitted by law.