cmp1
Compare two files byte by byte
Usage
cmp [OPTION] ...
FILE1
[FILE2
[SKIP1
[SKIP2]]]
Overview
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.
Releases
19 releases since Debian 1.1 (Buzz); the text changed 10 times.
--bytes since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--help since Debian 3.1 (Sarge);
--ignore-initial since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
--print-bytes since Debian 3.1 (Sarge);
--quiet since Debian 2.2 (Potato);
--silent since Debian 2.2 (Potato);
--verbose since Debian 2.2 (Potato);
--version since Debian 2.2 (Potato);
-b since Debian 3.1 (Sarge);
-i since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
-n since Debian 7 (Wheezy);
-v since Debian 2.2 (Potato).
--print-chars until Debian 3.0 (Woody);
-c until Debian 3.0 (Woody).