Go2Linux | Linux Operating System

As in GNU/Linux Operating System, the most if not all configuration files are text based, and you usually do changes to them, now if you are wise you should keep a backup of your configuration file before change it.

Well, I am talking about this, because this is the most frequent scenario where I use diff command, you may have some others.

Well let's now see how it works

I have these files.

numbers1.txt

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0

numbers2.txt

0
2
3
4
5
7
6
8
9
1

Let's start with diff

diff numbers1.txt numbers2.txt

1c1
< 1
---
> 0
6d5
< 6
7a7
> 6
10c10
< 0
---
> 1

Let's now see what does that mean.

Those are instructions to make the files looks the same, and here is how to read them.

1c1 "Replace line 1 of the first file with the line 1 of the second file" And shows you which values to extract and add, in this case erase 1 and write 0, and the files will look the same. 6d5 "Delete line 6 of the first file" And the value to erase is 6 7a7 "Add line 7 to first file" And the value to add is 6 10c10 "Replace line 10 of the first file with the line 10 of the second file" And the value to erase is 0 and the value to add is 1

If you are not looking for instructions to make the files look the same, but rather to look for the differences, you may use diff with some options like these.

diff -u numbers1.txt numbers2.txt

--- numbers1.txt        2009-02-21 09:11:10.000000000 -0400
+++ numbers2.txt        2009-02-21 08:57:42.000000000 -0400
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
-1
+0
 2
 3
 4
 5
-6
 7
+6
 8
 9
-0
+1

Now it is easier to read, the first file is identified with three dashes (---) and the second with three plus signals (+++)

And to read the output you should say, the first file has 1 where the second 0, then it is all the same until where the first file has 6 and the second not, then the second file has 6 where the first not, and at the end the first has 0 where the second 1.

You can also compare them side by side, and this is my favorite.

diff -y numbers1.txt numbers2.txt

1     | 0
2       2
3       3
4       4
5       5
6     <
7       7
      > 6
8       8
9       9
0     | 1

The | (pipe) shows difference, and the greater than and less than symbols shows where one file has info that the other does not.