2004/10/24 cmp

I often forget about "cmp" and use "diff" when all I really want to know is if two files are the same:

cmp -s file1 file2 || echo "Not the same"

Often the reason for the comparison is that I've written something like this:

touch /tmp/testdirb.$$
while :
do
  ls /testdir > /tmp/testdira.$$
  cmp -s /tmp/testdira.$$ /tmp/testdirb.$$ || echo "changed"
  cp /tmp/testdira.$$ /tmp/testdirb.$$
  sleep 300
done
 

Got something to add? Send me email.

More Articles by Tony Lawrence

Find me on Google+

© 2011-07-05 Tony Lawrence

---

Printer Friendly Version

Site map     |      Disclaimer

cmp: Tech Words of the Day Copyright © October 2004 Tony Lawrence

Have you tried Searching this site?

Support Rates

This is a Unix/Linux resource website. It contains technical articles about Unix, Linux and general computing related subjects, opinion, news, help files, how-to's, tutorials and more.

Contact us

Printer Friendly Version