cmp

The cmp command line tool is used to compare two files byte by byte and to output the first byte position where they differ. It is available on Unix-like operating systems, including Linux and macOS.

Here are a few key features and usage options of cmp:

• By default, cmp compares two files and displays no output if they are identical. If any differences are found, it reports the byte offset where the first difference occurs.
• The -l option displays byte differences in a more detailed format, showing the differing byte values and their offsets.
• The -b option is used to compare two files in binary mode, treating all bytes as data without any special interpretation.
• To compare specific byte ranges within files, you can use the -n option followed by the number of bytes to compare.
• The -i option allows you to skip a specified number of bytes at the beginning of each file before comparison.
• When cmp encounters read errors while comparing files, it reports them along with the corresponding error code.
• The exit status of the cmp command reflects the result of the comparison. If the files differ, the exit status is non-zero (1), and if they are identical, the exit status is 0.

Overall, cmp is a handy tool for comparing files at the binary level in the command line environment.