bzcmp

Additional Notes

bzcmp compares bzip2-compressed files by decompressing them temporarily through comparison tools. It is useful when checking whether compressed text files contain the same data.

It is related to bzdiff; output style depends on the underlying comparison command.

Syntax

bzcmp [cmp-options] file1.bz2 file2.bz2

Parameters

• file1.bz2: First compressed file.
• file2.bz2: Second compressed file.
• cmp-options: Options passed to the comparison tool when supported.

Examples

bzcmp old.log.bz2 new.log.bz2

Compare two compressed log files.

bzcmp backup1.txt.bz2 backup2.txt.bz2 && echo same

Use the exit status in a script.

Practical Notes

• This is most useful for text-like or comparable file contents.
• For readable line differences, use bzdiff.
• The compressed bytes can differ even when decompressed content is the same; bzcmp compares decompressed content.