Essential Linux
Good choice if you need help with Linux at the command line.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Essential Linux
Text formatting
cmp
cmp [ -1 ] [ -s ] filel file2
This command compares two files and gives an indication if they differ. With no options, cmp prints a message with the first occurrence of a difference, giving the line and character number of the discrepancy. If there is no difference, nothing is printed and the normal prompt appears. It Returns various codes indicating the results of its testing. Code 0 means the files were identical, 1 for different files and 2 for missing or incorrect arguments. Its options are:
| -I | Prints the byte number (decimal) and the differing bytes (octal) for each difference. |
| -s | Prints nothing for differing files and only Returns codes. |
$cat filelThis is line 1.This is line 2.$cat file2This is line a.This is line b.$ cmp filel file2filel file2 differ: char 14, line 1$ cmp -1 filel file2 14 61 141 30 62 142 46 63 143$ cmp -s filel file2$
col
col [-b] [-f] [-x]
col reads from the standard input and writes onto the standard output and is used to provide the line overlays. It is capable of complete line overlays and forward and reverse half-line overlays, and is usually used with the nroff text formatter. Control characters are used to indicate when to perform these operations esc7 for a complete line, esc8 and esc9 for reverse and forward line feeds. The options are fairly simple:
| -b | Assume that... |
Copyright Steve Heath 1997 under license agreement with Books24x7
