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.IX Title "File::Compare 3"
.TH File::Compare 3 2023-12-22 "perl v5.42.0" "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 \f(CW\*(C`File::Compare::compare\*(C'\fR function compares the contents of two
sources, each of which can be a file or a file handle.  It is exported
from \f(CW\*(C`File::Compare\*(C'\fR by default.
.PP
\&\f(CW\*(C`File::Compare::cmp\*(C'\fR is a synonym for \f(CW\*(C`File::Compare::compare\*(C'\fR.  It is
exported from \f(CW\*(C`File::Compare\*(C'\fR only by request.
.PP
\&\f(CW\*(C`File::Compare::compare_text\*(C'\fR does a line by line comparison of the two
files. It stops as soon as a difference is detected. \f(CWcompare_text()\fR
accepts an optional third argument: This must be a CODE reference to
a line comparison function, which returns \f(CW0\fR when both lines are considered
equal. For example:
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    compare_text($file1, $file2)
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.PP
is basically equivalent to
.PP
.Vb 1
\&    compare_text($file1, $file2, sub {$_[0] ne $_[1]} )
.Ve
.SH RETURN
.IX Header "RETURN"
\&\f(CW\*(C`File::Compare::compare\*(C'\fR and its sibling functions return \f(CW0\fR if the files
are equal, \f(CW1\fR if the files are unequal, or \f(CW\-1\fR if an error was encountered.
.SH AUTHOR
.IX Header "AUTHOR"
\&\f(CW\*(C`File::Compare\*(C'\fR was written by Nick Ing\-Simmons.
Its original documentation was written by Chip Salzenberg.