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.IX Title "File::Compare 3perl"
.TH File::Compare 3perl 2024-05-30 "perl v5.38.2" "Perl Programmers Reference Guide"
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.SH NAME
File::Compare \- Compare files or filehandles
.SH SYNOPSIS
.IX Header "SYNOPSIS"
.Vb 1
\&        use File::Compare;
\&
\&        if (compare("file1","file2") == 0) {
\&            print "They\*(Aqre equal\en";
\&        }
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.SH DESCRIPTION
.IX Header "DESCRIPTION"
The File::Compare::compare function compares the contents of two
sources, each of which can be a file or a file handle.  It is exported
from File::Compare by default.
.PP
File::Compare::cmp is a synonym for File::Compare::compare.  It is
exported from File::Compare only by request.
.PP
File::Compare::compare_text does a line by line comparison of the two
files. It stops as soon as a difference is detected. \fBcompare_text()\fR
accepts an optional third argument: This must be a CODE reference to
a line comparison function, which returns 0 when both lines are considered
equal. For example:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    compare_text($file1, $file2)
.Ve
.PP
is basically equivalent to
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    compare_text($file1, $file2, sub {$_[0] ne $_[1]} )
.Ve
.SH RETURN
.IX Header "RETURN"
File::Compare::compare and its sibling functions return 0 if the files
are equal, 1 if the files are unequal, or \-1 if an error was encountered.
.SH AUTHOR
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
File::Compare was written by Nick Ing-Simmons.
Its original documentation was written by Chip Salzenberg.