CMP

Section: User Commands (1)
Index Return to Main Contents

BSD mandoc
 

NAME

cmp - Compare two files.  

SYNOPSIS

cmp [-l | -s ] file1 file2  

DESCRIPTION

The cmp utility compares two files of any type and writes the results to the standard output. By default, cmp is silent if the files are the same; if they differ, the byte and line number at which the first difference occurred is reported.

Bytes and lines are numbered beginning with one.

The following options are available:

-l
Print the byte number (decimal) and the differing byte values (octal) for each difference.
-s
Print nothing for differing files; return exit status only.

If file1 or file2 is ``-'', the the standard input is used.

The cmp utility exits with one of the following values:

0
The files are identical.
1
The files are different; this includes the case where one file is identical to the first part of the other. In the latter case, if the -s option has not been specified, cmp writes to standard error that EOF was reached in the shorter file (before any differences were found).
>1
An error occurred.

 

SEE ALSO

diff(1), diff3(1)  

STANDARDS

The cmp function is expected to be POSIX 1003.2 compatible.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 06:26:22 GMT, May 19, 2025