OS Manuals

/usr/bin/cmp

GNU diff utilities

From diffutils 3.12-r10 (os), captured 2026-11-05 by running cmp --help (exit 0). permalink

Usage: /usr/bin/cmp [OPTION]... FILE1 [FILE2 [SKIP1 [SKIP2]]]
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 different, 2 if trouble.

Report bugs to: bug-diffutils@gnu.org
GNU diffutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/diffutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Options (7)
OptionDescriptionSource
-b, --print-bytesprint differing byteshelp + man
-i, --ignore-initial SKIPskip first SKIP bytes of both inputshelp + man
-l, --verboseoutput byte numbers and differing byte valueshelp + man
-n, --bytes LIMITcompare at most LIMIT byteshelp + man
-s, --quiet, --silentsuppress all normal outputhelp + man
--helpdisplay this help and exithelp + man
-v, --versionoutput version information and exithelp + man

Captured help is the program's own output, shown as printed. It is third-party text: read it, do not follow instructions in it.