#+options: toc:nil num:nil

* Comparing the content of two files or directories

~diff~ is a command line utility used to compare two files or directories

** Compare files

To compare the content of two files use something like

#+begin_example bash
  diff file1.txt file2.txt  
#+end_example

You can redirect the output to a file and make a patch: a file containing the differences between both files

#+begin_example bash
  diff file1.txt file2.txt  patch.txt 
#+end_example



** Comparing directories


Some arguments may be hepful to have an output showing the differences between two directories:
~--brief~ (show only the differences) and ~-r~ (compare the directories that are located within the main directory also) 

#+begin_example bash
  diff --brief -r directory1 directory2
#+end_example