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📖 NAME

cmp — compare two files byte by byte

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
📄 Basic comparison	cmp file1 file2	Compare two files byte by byte.
🔬 Verbose comparison	cmp -l file1 file2	Output byte numbers and differing byte values.
🤫 Silent check	cmp -s file1 file2	Suppress output, only return exit code.
📏 Limit comparison	cmp -n 100 file1 file2	Compare at most 100 bytes.
⏭️ Skip initial bytes	cmp file1 file2 10 20	Skip 10 bytes from FILE1 and 20 bytes from FILE2.

🔖 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.

🔧 Options

-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 ℹ️ 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 Codes

• 0 — ✅ Inputs are identical.
• 1 — ❌ Inputs are different.
• 2 — ⚠️ An error occurred (e.g., file not found, permission denied).

👤 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.

📚 SEE ALSO

diff(1), diff3(1), sdiff(1)

The full documentation for cmp is maintained as a Texinfo manual. If the info and cmp programs are properly installed at your site, the command

info cmp

should give you access to the complete manual.

📖 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 🔖 SYNOPSIS 📝 DESCRIPTION 🚪 Exit Codes 👤 AUTHOR 🐛 REPORTING BUGS ©️ COPYRIGHT 📚 SEE ALSO