Friday, January 13, 2012

COMP and FC : Windows equivalent of UNIX / LINUX diff command

COMP and FC commands can be used as Windows equivalent of UNIX / LINUX diff command.

COMP

Compares the contents of two files or sets of files.

SYNTAX :
COMP [data1] [data2] [/D] [/A] [/L] [/N=number] [/C] [/OFF[LINE]]

  data1      Specifies location and name(s) of first file(s) to compare.
  data2      Specifies location and name(s) of second files to compare.
  /D         Displays differences in decimal format.
  /A         Displays differences in ASCII characters.
  /L         Displays line numbers for differences.
  /N=number  Compares only the first specified number of lines in each file.
  /C         Disregards case of ASCII letters when comparing files.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.

To compare sets of files, use wildcards in data1 and data2 parameters.

FC

Compares two files or sets of files and displays the differences between them

SYNTAX:
FC [/A] [/C] [/L] [/LBn] [/N] [/OFF[LINE]] [/T] [/U] [/W] [/nnnn]
   [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2
FC /B [drive1:][path1]filename1 [drive2:][path2]filename2

  /A         Displays only first and last lines for each set of differences.
  /B         Performs a binary comparison.
  /C         Disregards the case of letters.
  /L         Compares files as ASCII text.
  /LBn       Sets the maximum consecutive mismatches to the specified
             number of lines.
  /N         Displays the line numbers on an ASCII comparison.
  /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set.
  /T         Does not expand tabs to spaces.
  /U         Compare files as UNICODE text files.
  /W         Compresses white space (tabs and spaces) for comparison.
  /nnnn      Specifies the number of consecutive lines that must match
             after a mismatch.
  [drive1:][path1]filename1
             Specifies the first file or set of files to compare.
  [drive2:][path2]filename2
             Specifies the second file or set of files to compare.