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
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More Articles by Tony Lawrence © 2011-07-05 Tony Lawrence
It all sounds good from the pulpit,but come Monday morning all the sinners are back to business as usual writing crappy code. (Tony Lawrence)
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cmp: Tech Words of the Day Copyright © October 2004 Tony Lawrence
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