The two files are
compared.
A diagnostic results if the contents differ, otherwise
there is no output.
By default,
cmp
prints the byte number of the first differing byte.
The options are:
- -l
- Print the byte number (decimal) and the
differing bytes (hexadecimal) for each difference.
- -s
- Print nothing for differing files,
but set the exit status.
- -L
- Print the line number of the first differing byte.
If offsets are given,
comparison starts at the designated byte position
of the corresponding file.
Offsets that begin with
0x
are hexadecimal;
with
0,
octal; with anything else, decimal.