HowTo: Compare binary files on Linux
Posted: Thu Aug 08, 2019 3:24 amIf you use "diff" to compare binary files (that have the same size), it will just tell you that:
If you want to know the which bytes at which offsets differ, use the "cmp" command:
Without the "-l" parameter, cmp will just tell you the first offset that differs.
With "-l" it will give you an output that looks somewhat like this:
According to cmp's manpage, it's "byte numbers and differing byte values".
The first column is the byte offset in decimal (CAUTION: starts at 1 not 0), but I haven't figured out yet what the values of column 2 or 3 mean. In my case here it's neither the value in each file, nor the difference, nor anything.
However: cmp is nice to see how many bytes at which offsets differ!
Binary files A and B differ
If you want to know the which bytes at which offsets differ, use the "cmp" command:
- Code: Select all
$ cmp -l a.bin b.bin
Without the "-l" parameter, cmp will just tell you the first offset that differs.
With "-l" it will give you an output that looks somewhat like this:
- Code: Select all
173 50 362
9067 63 67
9068 70 60
9069 65 62
According to cmp's manpage, it's "byte numbers and differing byte values".
The first column is the byte offset in decimal (CAUTION: starts at 1 not 0), but I haven't figured out yet what the values of column 2 or 3 mean. In my case here it's neither the value in each file, nor the difference, nor anything.
However: cmp is nice to see how many bytes at which offsets differ!