File Comparison

diff

Line-by-line comparison of two files or directories.

comm

Line-by-line comparison of two sorted files.

cmp

Byte-by-byte comparison of two files.

md5

Compute a checksum of the given files.

There are three ways to compare files:

  • Line by line (diff, comm), best suited to text files

  • Byte by byte (cmp), often used for binary files

  • By comparing checksums (md5)

These programs are all text-based. For a graphical file-comparison tool, try xxdiff at http://furius.ca/xxdiff.

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