How to compare files

Hi all,

I really wanted to post this to the NG dealing with batch files, but I can't
remember the NG name. Can someone please reply with that group's name?

Anyway... I'm looking for an easy way to determine whether or not two files
are identical. I have a batch file that wants to do different things to the
files based on this knowledge. I looked at FSO, but there doesn't seem to
be anything helpful there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Ray
Thu Nov 04 20:10:03 CST 2004

Hi Bob,

m.p.windows2000.cmdprompt.admin is a good batch file group.

Perhaps you're looking for the FC command?

Ray at work

"Bob Altman" <rda@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:espPlTtwEHA.3336@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi all,
>
> I really wanted to post this to the NG dealing with batch files, but I
> can't
> remember the NG name. Can someone please reply with that group's name?
>
> Anyway... I'm looking for an easy way to determine whether or not two
> files
> are identical. I have a batch file that wants to do different things to
> the
> files based on this knowledge. I looked at FSO, but there doesn't seem to
> be anything helpful there.
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>
>

Bob
Thu Nov 04 22:47:25 CST 2004

FC would work for me if (1) I can get it to compare the files without
displaying anything to the user, and (2) I can look at an exit status code
or something to figure out whether or not the files are identical.

I guess I could do (1) by redirecting the output to the bit bucket, but I
haven't tried to play around with it to figure out if I can do (2).

- Bob

"Ray Costanzo [MVP]" <my first name at lane 34 dot commercial> wrote in
message news:uUyIuxtwEHA.3492@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi Bob,
>
> m.p.windows2000.cmdprompt.admin is a good batch file group.
>
> Perhaps you're looking for the FC command?
>
> Ray at work
>
> "Bob Altman" <rda@nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:espPlTtwEHA.3336@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>> Hi all,
>>
>> I really wanted to post this to the NG dealing with batch files, but I
>> can't
>> remember the NG name. Can someone please reply with that group's name?
>>
>> Anyway... I'm looking for an easy way to determine whether or not two
>> files
>> are identical. I have a batch file that wants to do different things to
>> the
>> files based on this knowledge. I looked at FSO, but there doesn't seem
>> to
>> be anything helpful there.
>>
>> Any help would be greatly appreciated!
>>
>>
>
>

McKirahan
Fri Nov 05 05:01:11 CST 2004

"Bob Altman" <rda@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Ov9xJKvwEHA.3260@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
> FC would work for me if (1) I can get it to compare the files without
> displaying anything to the user, and (2) I can look at an exit status code
> or something to figure out whether or not the files are identical.
>
> I guess I could do (1) by redirecting the output to the bit bucket, but I
> haven't tried to play around with it to figure out if I can do (2).
>
> - Bob

[snip]

If you only want to determine if there are or are not differences between
two files then you could use "fc" by examining its output for "FC: no
differences encountered".

Bob
Mon Nov 08 13:07:55 CST 2004

Thanks. Actually, I got a complete code snippet on the alt.msdos.batch.nt
newsgroup. (I would post it here, but I don't have it in front of me and I
can't get to that newsgroup from this computer...)

- Bob