[SOLVED] Compare two files?

Shahid nx · 04-23-2012, 01:54 AM

Hi Sir/Hello Friends,

My question is, there is one configuration file which had written some day before. Now i have modified that file by adding some more lines of code. Now my task is to compare and check where all i modified that file. Is there any method in linux to compare those files. Can any one help me out.

Regards,
Shahid Nx

descendant_command · 04-23-2012, 01:56 AM

Code:

diff file1 file2

and 'man diff' for options

anon237 · 04-23-2012, 02:05 AM

Hi,

Another command you might want to look at: comm

Code:

comm <options> file1 file2

Hope this helps.

Shahid nx · 04-23-2012, 02:15 AM

But the out put that diff cmd is giving i m not getting that.

is it possible in linux where it compares the two files and display only lines that are not present in old file. means if old file is of 100 lines and in new file i added 10 more lines to it. So is there any way to display only these added lines. Plz share if any idea

Satyaveer Arya · 04-23-2012, 02:16 AM

Quote:

My question is, there is one configuration file which had written some day before. Now i have modified that file by adding some more lines of code.

Did you make the changes in that same file? Did you take backup of that file before making changes?

k3lt01 · 04-23-2012, 02:17 AM

Install Meld, open the application tell it what files you want to compare and it will show you what lines are different. I use it alot for optimising package lists.

Shahid nx · 04-23-2012, 02:18 AM

Yes sir i have taken the back up of that file. nw i have both old and new file.

anon237 · 04-23-2012, 02:19 AM

Hi,

Both files need to be sorted, otherwise both comm and diff won't work (as stated in the man pages).

If the files are sorted, comm can do what you want/need:

Code:

comm -3 file1 file2

See man page for details.

If the files cannot be sorted: Have a look at k3lt01's suggestion.

Hope this helps.

Tinkster · 04-23-2012, 02:21 AM

And as a generic suggestion:

Code:

man -k search_term| egrep '\(1|8\)'

In your case:

Code:

 man -k compare| egrep '\(1|8\)'
bzcmp []             (1)  - compare bzip2 compressed files
bzdiff []            (1)  - compare bzip2 compressed files
cmp []               (1)  - compare two files byte by byte
comm []              (1)  - compare two sorted files line by line
compare []           (1)  - mathematically and visually annotate the difference between an image and its reconstruction
diff []              (1)  - compare files line by line
diff3 []             (1)  - compare three files line by line
git []               (1)  - diff-files - Compares files in the working tree and the index
git []               (1)  - diff-index - Compares content and mode of blobs between the index and repository
git []               (1)  - diff-tree - Compares the content and mode of blobs found via two tree objects
infocmp []           (1)  - compare or print out terminfo descriptions
ldapcompare []       (1)  - LDAP compare tool
lzcmp []             (1)  - compare LZMA compressed files
lzdiff []            (1)  - compare LZMA compressed files
msgcmp []            (1)  - compare message catalog and template
ndiff []             (1)  - Utility to compare the results of Nmap scans
ntfscmp []           (8)  - compare two NTFS filesystems and tell the differences
rcsdiff []           (1)  - compare RCS revisions
test []              (1)  - check file types and compare values
tiffcmp []           (1)  - compare two TIFF files
zcmp []              (1)  - compare compressed files
zdiff []             (1)  - compare compressed files
zipcmp []            (1)  - compare contents of zip archives

Cheers,
Tink

Satyaveer Arya · 04-23-2012, 02:22 AM

You can also get the clear-cut visual difference between two files using this command -

Code:

# sdiff file1.txt file2.txt

No need to install any other software/package.

pan64 · 04-23-2012, 02:33 AM

you can try: diff file1 file2 | grep '^<' or diff file1 file2 | grep '^>'

Shahid nx · 04-23-2012, 03:59 AM

@Satyaveer Arya: Yes sir sdiff command helps,i got my output.

Thanks To all.

Satyaveer Arya · 04-23-2012, 04:15 AM

Glad to know the the problem solved out and the command worked out for you.