Comparison function that compares two text files in Unix

Question

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there is a function available in unix, bash that compares all of the lines of the files. If they are different it should output true/f

Answer 1

#!/bin/bash

file1=old.txt
file2=new.txt

echo " TEST 1 : "
echo

if [ $( cmp -s ${file1} ${file2}) ]
then
   echo "The files match :  ${file1} - ${file2}"
else
   echo "The files are different :  ${file1} - ${file2}"
fi

echo
echo " TEST 2 : "
echo
bool=$(cmp -s "$file1" "$file2" )
if cmp -s "$file1" "$file2"
then
   echo "The files match"
else
   echo "The files are different"
fi

echo
echo " TEST 3 : md5 / md5sum - compute and check MD5 message digest"
echo

md1=$(md5 ${file1});
md2=$(md5 ${file2});

mdd1=$(echo $md1 | awk '{print $4}' ) 
mdd2=$(echo $md2 | awk '{print $4}' ) 

# or md5sum depends on your linux flavour :D
#md1=$(md5sum ${file1});
#md2=$(md5sum ${file2});

#mdd1=$(echo $md1 | awk '{print $1}' ) 
#mdd2=$(echo $md2 | awk '{print $1}' ) 

echo $md1
echo $mdd1
echo $md2
echo $mdd2
echo

#if [ $mdd1 = $mdd2 ]; 
if [ $mdd1 -eq $mdd2 ]; 
then
   echo "The files match :  ${file1} - ${file2}"
else
   echo "The files are different :  ${file1} - ${file2}"
fi