The cmp utility compares two files of any type and writes the results
to the standard output.
By default,
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:
-tag -width flag
Fl l
Print the byte number (decimal) and the differing
byte values (octal) for each difference.
Fl s
Print nothing for differing files; return exit
status only.
The optional arguments
skip1
and
skip2
are the byte offsets from the beginning of
file1
and
file2 ,
respectively, where the comparison will begin.
The offset is decimal by default, but may be expressed as an hexadecimal
or octal value by preceding it with a leading ``0x'' or ``0''.
The
cmp
utility exits with one of the following values:
-tag -width 4n
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 output that EOF was reached in the shorter
file (before any differences were found).
>1
An error occurred.
