xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/cmp/cmp.1 (revision 74bf4e164ba5851606a27d4feff27717452583e5)
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35.\"     @(#)cmp.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
36.\" $FreeBSD$
37.\"
38.Dd June 6, 1993
39.Dt CMP 1
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm cmp
43.Nd compare two files
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Nm
46.Op Fl l | Fl s | Fl x
47.Op Fl z
48.Ar file1 file2
49.Op Ar skip1 Op Ar skip2
50.Sh DESCRIPTION
51The
52.Nm
53utility compares two files of any type and writes the results
54to the standard output.
55By default,
56.Nm
57is silent if the files are the same; if they differ, the byte
58and line number at which the first difference occurred is reported.
59.Pp
60Bytes and lines are numbered beginning with one.
61.Pp
62The following options are available:
63.Bl -tag -width flag
64.It Fl l
65Print the byte number (decimal) and the differing
66byte values (octal) for each difference.
67.It Fl s
68Print nothing for differing files; return exit
69status only.
70.It Fl x
71Like
72.Fl l
73but prints in hexadecimal and using zero as index
74for the first byte in the files.
75.It Fl z
76For regular files compare file sizes first, and fail the comparison if they
77are not equal.
78.El
79.Pp
80The optional arguments
81.Ar skip1
82and
83.Ar skip2
84are the byte offsets from the beginning of
85.Ar file1
86and
87.Ar file2 ,
88respectively, where the comparison will begin.
89The offset is decimal by default, but may be expressed as a hexadecimal
90or octal value by preceding it with a leading ``0x'' or ``0''.
91.Pp
92The
93.Nm
94utility exits with one of the following values:
95.Bl -tag -width 4n
96.It 0
97The files are identical.
98.It 1
99The files are different; this includes the case
100where one file is identical to the first part of
101the other.
102In the latter case, if the
103.Fl s
104option has not been specified,
105.Nm
106writes to standard error that EOF was reached in the shorter
107file (before any differences were found).
108.It >1
109An error occurred.
110.El
111.Sh SEE ALSO
112.Xr diff 1 ,
113.Xr diff3 1
114.Sh STANDARDS
115The
116.Nm
117utility is expected to be
118.St -p1003.2
119compatible.
120.Sh HISTORY
121A
122.Nm
123command appeared in
124.At v1 .
125