topic What command to use to trap differences between two files? in Operating System - HP-UX

What command to use to trap differences between two files?

Joe Robinson_2 — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:27:45 GMT

Good morning everyone,

I'm revising a script that among other things ensures that my /etc/inetd.conf isn't modified without my knowing it. The syntax I'm using now is:

diff file1 fileb | wc -w | awk '{print $1}'

if the output of that is greater than 0, I echo a message to sendmail which then notifies me of a change. WHAT I'D LIKE TO DO is to have the file comparison trap the difference and send THAT to sendmail so I could see exactly WHAT had changed. I've looked at diff, cmp, uniq and a few others but haven't (apparantly) seen what I need. Does someone have a suggestion on this?

Thanks,
Joe Robinson

Re: What command to use to trap differences between two files?

Sachin Patel — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:32:50 GMT

Hi Joe,
Why can't you send output of your diff file1 file2 output to email

Forexample
diff file1 file2 |wc -w |awk .....
if result=0 then exit
else diff file1 file2 |mailx -s

Sachin

Re: What command to use to trap differences between two files?

A. Clay Stephenson — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:33:27 GMT

Hi Joe:

try sdiff -s file1 file2. Man sdiff for details.

Clay

Re: What command to use to trap differences between two files?

harry d brown jr — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:33:52 GMT

The output of diff will show you the changes made.

Re: What command to use to trap differences between two files?

Sridhar Bhaskarla — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 14:53:58 GMT

YOu can try this small script

diff file1 file2
if [ $? != 0 ]
then
sdiff -s file1 file2 |mailx -s "File 1 changed" your_id
fi

-Sri

Re: What command to use to trap differences between two files?

Wodisch — Wed, 10 Oct 2001 15:01:05 GMT

Hello Joe,

to be cautious about CPU time and such:

#!/usr/bin/sh
TMP=/tmp/diff.$$
MAIL=you@your.domain
file1=$1
file2=$2
trap "rm -f $TMP" 0
if diff $file1 $file2 > $TMP
then mailx -s"differences" $MAIL < $TMP
exit 1
fi
exit 0
# end

Just my ?0.02,
Wodisch