Comparing Files in Linux

sdiff, much like it's counter part diff, provides a great way to compare files in GNU/Linux! A good mnumonic to remember the command is by thinking of it as the "side-by-side merge of file differences." Here's an example of how it works.

First, create two files, beginning with textfile1:
Apples
Oranges
Bananas

... and the second file, textfile2:
Apples
Oranges
Strawberries
Bananas

With two files to compare, let's run sdiff on them:
$ sdiff --width 10 textfile1 textfile2
Apples Apples
Oranges Oranges
> Strawberr
Bananas Bananas

sdiff contains a few additional features of interest:

• --output=FILE


• --ignore-case


• --ignore-all-space

And that's it, so remember: When you need to quickly compare files in Linux, sdiff is a convenient method!