XZDIFF(1) XZ Utils XZDIFF(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

xzcmp, xzdiff, lzcmp, lzdiff - compare compressed files

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

**xzcmp** \[*option...*] *file1* \[*file2*]  
**xzdiff** ...  
**lzcmp** ... (DEPRECATED)  
**lzdiff** ... (DEPRECATED)

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

**xzcmp** and **xzdiff** compare uncompressed contents of two files. Uncompressed data and options are passed to [**cmp**(1)](/man/os/xz/cmp.1) or [**diff**(1)](/man/os/xz/diff.1) unless **--help** or **--version** is specified.

If both *file1* and *file2* are specified, they can be uncompressed files or files in formats that [**xz**(1)](/man/os/xz/xz.1), [**gzip**(1)](/man/os/xz/gzip.1), [**bzip2**(1)](/man/os/xz/bzip2.1), [**lzop**(1)](/man/os/xz/lzop.1), [**zstd**(1)](/man/os/xz/zstd.1), or [**lz4**(1)](/man/os/xz/lz4.1) can decompress. The required decompression commands are determined from the filename suffixes of *file1* and *file2*. A file with an unknown suffix is assumed to be either uncompressed or in a format that [**xz**(1)](/man/os/xz/xz.1) can decompress.

If only one filename is provided, *file1* must have a suffix of a supported compression format and the name for *file2* is assumed to be *file1* with the compression format suffix removed.

The commands **lzcmp** and **lzdiff** are provided for backward compatibility with LZMA Utils. They are deprecated and will be removed in a future version.

# [EXIT STATUS](#EXIT_STATUS)

If a decompression error occurs, the exit status is **2**. Otherwise the exit status of [**cmp**(1)](/man/os/xz/cmp.1) or [**diff**(1)](/man/os/xz/diff.1) is used.

# [SEE ALSO](#SEE_ALSO)

[**cmp**(1)](/man/os/xz/cmp.1), [**diff**(1)](/man/os/xz/diff.1), [**xz**(1)](/man/os/xz/xz.1), [**gzip**(1)](/man/os/xz/gzip.1), [**bzip2**(1)](/man/os/xz/bzip2.1), [**lzop**(1)](/man/os/xz/lzop.1), [**zstd**(1)](/man/os/xz/zstd.1), [**lz4**(1)](/man/os/xz/lz4.1)

2025-03-06 Tukaani

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Document: xzdiff(1) from xz 5.8.4-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/tukaani-project/xz