User Commands                                              cmp(1)



NAME
     cmp - compare two files

SYNOPSIS
  /usr/bin/cmp
     /usr/bin/cmp [ options ] file1 file2 [skip1] [skip2]

  ksh93
     cmp [ options ] file1 file2 [skip1] [skip2]

DESCRIPTION
     cmp compares two files file1 and file2. cmp writes no output if
     the files are the same. By default, if the files differ, the byte
     and line number at which the first difference occurred are
     written to standard output. Bytes and lines are numbered
     beginning with 1.

     If skip1 or skip2 are specified, or the -i option is specified,
     initial bytes of the corresponding file are skipped before
     beginning the compare. The skip values are in bytes or can have a
     suffix of k for kilobytes or m for megabytes.

     If either file1 or files2 is -, cmp uses standard input starting
     at the current location.


OPTIONS
     The following options are supported:

     -c, --print-chars
                     Writes control characters as a ^ followed by a
                     letter of the alphabet and precede characters
                     that have the high bit set with M-.
     -i, --ignore-initial=skip
                     Sets default skip values for the operands skip1
                     and skip2 to skip. The default value is 0.
     -l, --verbose   Write the decimal byte number and the differing
                     bytes (in octal) for each difference.
     -s, --quiet|silent
                     Write nothing for differing files; return
                     non-zero exit status only.

     --man, --html, --nroff
                     Prints builtin manual page in either plain text,
                     HTML or nroff format.
     --help          Prints basic help information
     --version       Prints version information

OPERANDS
     The following operands are supported:

     file1    A path name of the first file to  be  compared.  If
              file1 is -, the standard input is used.



     file2    A path name of the second file to be  compared.  If
              file2 is -, the standard input is used.



     If both file1 and file2 refer to standard input or refer  to
     the  same  FIFO  special, block special or character special
     file, an error results.

USAGE
     See largefile(5) for the description of the behavior of  cmp
     when  encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte (2
    **31 bytes).




SunOS 5.10          Last change: 19 Jul 2006                    1






User Commands                                              cmp(1)



EXAMPLES
     Example 1: Comparing Files Byte for Byte

     The following example does a byte  for  byte  comparison  of
     file1 and file2:

     example% cmp file1 file2 0 1024

     It skips the first 1024 bytes in file2 before  starting  the
     comparison.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     See environ(5) for descriptions of the following environment
     variables  that  affect  the execution of cmp: LANG, LC_ALL,
     LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, and NLSPATH.

EXIT STATUS
     The following error values are returned:

     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.



     >1       An error occurred.



ATTRIBUTES
     See attributes(5) for descriptions of the  following  attri-
     butes:

     ____________________________________________________________
    |       ATTRIBUTE TYPE        |       ATTRIBUTE VALUE       |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Availability                | SUNWcsu                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | CSI                         | Enabled                     |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|
    | Interface Stability         | Standard                    |
    |_____________________________|_____________________________|


SEE ALSO
     comm(1), diff(1), ksh93(1), attributes(5), environ(5), largefile(5),
     standards(5)




SunOS 5.10          Last change: 19 Jul 2006                    2