Manual: cmp

CMP(1)						User Commands					      CMP(1)

NAME
       cmp - compare two files byte by byte

SYNOPSIS
       cmp [OPTION]... FILE1 [FILE2 [SKIP1 [SKIP2]]]

DESCRIPTION
       Compare two files byte by byte.

       The  optional SKIP1 and SKIP2 specify the number of bytes to skip at the beginning of each file (zero
       by default).

       Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

       -b, --print-bytes
	      print differing bytes

       -i, --ignore-initial=SKIP
	      skip first SKIP bytes of both inputs

       -i, --ignore-initial=SKIP1:SKIP2
	      skip first SKIP1 bytes of FILE1 and first SKIP2 bytes of FILE2

       -l, --verbose
	      output byte numbers and differing byte values

       -n, --bytes=LIMIT
	      compare at most LIMIT bytes

       -s, --quiet, --silent
	      suppress all normal output

       --help display this help and exit

       -v, --version
	      output version information and exit

       SKIP values may be followed by the following multiplicative suffixes: kB 1000, K 1024, MB  1,000,000,
       M 1,048,576, GB 1,000,000,000, G 1,073,741,824, and so on for T, P, E, Z, Y.

       If a FILE is '-' or missing, read standard input.  Exit status is 0 if inputs are the same, 1 if dif‐
       ferent, 2 if trouble.

AUTHOR
       Written by Torbjorn Granlund and David MacKenzie.

REPORTING BUGS
       Report bugs to: bug-diffutils@gnu.org
       GNU diffutils home page: 
       General help using GNU software: 

COPYRIGHT
       Copyright  ©  2025  Free	 Software  Foundation,	Inc.   License	GPLv3+:	 GNU  GPL version 3 or later
       .
       This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.  There is NO WARRANTY, to the	 ex‐
       tent permitted by law.

SEE ALSO
       diff(1), diff3(1), sdiff(1)

       The  full  documentation for cmp is maintained as a Texinfo manual.  If the info and cmp programs are
       properly installed at your site, the command

	      info cmp

       should give you access to the complete manual.

diffutils 3.12					 April 2025					      CMP(1)