Table of Contents

## Name

cmp - compare two files byte by byte

## Synopsis

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

## Description

Compare two files byte by byte.

-b --print-bytes
  Print differing bytes.
-i SKIP --ignore-initial=SKIP
  Skip the first SKIP bytes of input.
-i SKIP1:SKIP2 --ignore-initial=SKIP1:SKIP2
Skip the first SKIP1 bytes of FILE1 and the first SKIP2 bytes of FILE2.
-l --verbose
  Output byte numbers and values of all differing bytes.
-n LIMIT --bytes=LIMIT
  Compare at most LIMIT bytes.
-s --quiet --silent
  Output nothing; yield exit status only.
-v --version
  Output version info.
--help
  Output this help.

SKIP1 and SKIP2 are the number of bytes to skip in each file. 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 different, 2 if trouble.

## Author

Written by Torbjorn Granlund and David MacKenzie.

## Reporting Bugs

Report bugs to <bug-gnu-utils@gnu.org>.

## Copyright

Copyright © 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

## See Also

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 diff

should give you access to the complete manual.

Table of Contents

- Name
- Synopsis
- Description
- Author
- Reporting Bugs
- Copyright
- See Also