File Compare (comp)

File Compare (comp)

\ windows \system32\comp.exe

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File Compare ( comp.exe ) compares two files (or more, using wildcards), and reports whether the files are identical; if they are, you'll see Files compare OK . If the files are the same size but have different contents, comp.exe displays the differences, character by character, by reporting Compare Error at OFFSET n (where n is byte offsetthe location of the difference, in characters , from the beginning of the file). If the files are different sizes, comp.exe reports Files are different sizes , and the comparison stops there. Here are the options for comp.exe :

 comp [   file1   ] [   file2   ] [/n=   number   ] [/c] [/off] [/d] [/l] 

Option	Description
file1 , file2	Specify the filenames of the files to compare.
/n= number	Compare only a few lines; example: /n=5
/c	Treat upper- and lowercase letters as identical.
/off	Include offline files; see the Synchronization Manager.
/d	Displays differences in decimal format.
/l	Include line numbers in the output.

TIP

Comp.exe will ask if you want to perform another comparison, unless you use the input redirection character (see Chapter 6), like this:

 comp   file1 file2   <n