cmp command !!!

[Manuales]

I'm making some tests of restoring some files from omniback.

i wish compare both files, the file restored and file living in the path.
How can i compare them?
can i use diff command?
can i use cmp command?

How can i use cmp command ?

Thanks, Manuales.

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

Shalom,

I know for ascii files you can use the diff command.

For an alternative.

http://www.thefreecountry.com/programming/filecomparison.shtml

The diff command may have a binary switch, but I can't remember right now. See the man page for my memory gap.

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson]

The best possible comparison is the cksum command; it will work on files of any type. If the CRC cksums are equal, the files are exactly the same.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Manuales:

As Clay noted, a definitive file comparison test is the 'cksum' command. You can compare binary or ASCII files in this manner.

Compare the checksums of the files in the corresponding directories to determine if the contents of two directories are the same.

Blocks are be allocated to a directory as files are added, but the blocks are not returned when files are deleted. Thus you will often see a replicated directory's size smaller than its source directory. This is of no concern if the checksums of the *contents* of the two directories match.

'diff' and 'bdiff' can examine directories recursively, if both arguments are directories. 'diff' then sorts the contents of the directories by name, and runs on *text* files that have the same name in each directory.

See the manpages for more information.

Regards!

...JRF...

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again) Manuales:

I should not have suggested that 'diff' will not compare binary files. It will. Instead of reporting the differences as it does with ASCII files, it will report, for example:

"Binary files /tmp/file1 and /tmp/file2 differ"

Using 'cksum' one can compare the computed value of the two files for equality.

/No_Points Please For This Clarification/

Regards!

...JRF...

[Raj D.]

Manuales ,

Check with cksum, it gives best result, to check and compare two file. The checksum value should be same for both the case.

furthre # man cksum


Cheers,
Raj.

[Muthukumar_5]

It is not good to use diff or cmp commands with all files. It cannot compare on binary files.

Try to use cksum command to get difference.

cksum file1 file2

will give the details.

--
Muthu

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Manuales,

You can use "cksum" suggested by unix gurus here. As well, if you want to have a try with something else, look at md5cksum.

http://h20293.www2.hp.com/portal/swdepot/displayProductInfo.do?productNumber=md5checksum

-Arun

[Manuales]

Hi, i have already executed next:
# cksum log_g13m1.dbf log_g13m1.dbf.back
2219005271 52429824 log_g13m1.dbf
3688632956 52429824 log_g13m1.dbf.back

my doubt now is:
what is the meanning of first and second field?

Manuales.

[Arunvijai_4]

Hi Manuales,

First field is the check sum value and second field is size of the file.

-Arun

[Pete Randall]

The first number is the CRC and the second is the size of the file in bytes.


Pete

[A. Clay Stephenson]

If you had simply bothered to do a "man cksum", you would have your answer.