134-the-cmp-command.md

The cmp command

The cmp command is used to compare the two files byte by byte.

Example:

cmp file1.txt file2.txt

Syntax:

cmp [option] File1 File2

Few Examples :

1. Comparison of two files:

Perform a simple comparison of the two files to check out if they differ from each other or not.

Example:

cmp File1 File2

2. Comparing Files after Skipping a Specified Number of Bytes:

Compare two files after skipping a certain number of bytes

Example:

cmp -i 2 list.txt list2.txt

Here “INT” represents the number of bytes to be skipped

3. Display the Differing Bytes of the Files in the Output:

Example:

cmp -b list.txt list1.txt

4. Display Byte Numbers and Differing Byte Values of the Files in the Output:

Example:

cmp -l list.txt list1.txt

5. Comparing the First “n” Number of Bytes of the Files:

Example:

cmp -n 10 list.txt list2.txt 

Additional Flags and their Functionalities

Short Flag	Long Flag	Description
-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
v	--version	output version information and exit
	--help	Display this help and exit