xref: /openbsd-src/usr.bin/cmp/cmp.1 (revision b2ea75c1b17e1a9a339660e7ed45cd24946b230e)
1.\"     $OpenBSD: cmp.1,v 1.9 2000/11/09 17:52:06 aaron Exp $
2.\"     $NetBSD: cmp.1,v 1.4 1995/09/08 03:22:55 tls Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1987, 1990, 1993
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
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7.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
8.\" the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
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20.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
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38.\"     @(#)cmp.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
39.\"
40.Dd June 6, 1993
41.Dt CMP 1
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm cmp
45.Nd compare two files
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.Nm cmp
48.Op Fl l | Fl s
49.Ar file1 file2
50.Op Ar skip1 Op Ar skip2
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The
53.Nm
54utility compares two files of any type and writes the results
55to the standard output.
56By default,
57.Nm
58is silent if the files are the same; if they differ, the byte
59and line number at which the first difference occurred is reported.
60.Pp
61Bytes and lines are numbered beginning with one.
62.Pp
63The options are as follows:
64.Bl -tag -width Ds
65.It Fl l
66Print the byte number (decimal) and the differing
67byte values (octal) for each difference.
68.It Fl s
69Print nothing for differing files; return exit
70status only.
71.El
72.Pp
73The optional arguments
74.Ar skip1
75and
76.Ar skip2
77are the byte offsets from the beginning of
78.Ar file1
79and
80.Ar file2 ,
81respectively, where the comparison will begin.
82The offset is decimal by default, but may be expressed as a hexadecimal
83or octal value by preceding it with a leading
84.Dq 0x
85or
86.Dq 0 .
87.Pp
88The
89.Nm
90utility exits with one of the following values:
91.Bl -tag -width 4n
92.It 0
93The files are identical.
94.It 1
95The files are different; this includes the case
96where one file is identical to the first part of
97the other.
98In the latter case, if the
99.Fl s
100option has not been specified,
101.Nm
102writes to standard error that
103.Dv EOF
104was reached in the shorter
105file (before any differences were found).
106.It >1
107An error occurred.
108.El
109.Sh SEE ALSO
110.Xr diff 1 ,
111.Xr diff3 1
112.Sh STANDARDS
113The
114.Nm
115utility is expected to be
116.St -p1003.2
117compatible.
118.Sh HISTORY
119A
120.Nm
121command appeared in
122.At v1 .
123