bzdiff

Additional Notes

bzdiff compares bzip2-compressed files and shows line-oriented differences. It avoids a manual decompress-then-diff workflow.

Use it for compressed logs, reports, configuration snapshots, or text archives.

Syntax

bzdiff [diff-options] file1.bz2 file2.bz2

Parameters

• file1.bz2: First compressed file.
• file2.bz2: Second compressed file.
• diff-options: Options passed to diff when supported.

Examples

bzdiff old.conf.bz2 new.conf.bz2

Show line differences between compressed files.

bzdiff -u old.log.bz2 new.log.bz2

Show unified diff output.

bzdiff backup-1.txt.bz2 backup-2.txt.bz2 | less

Page through a longer diff.

Practical Notes

• bzdiff is for decompressed text comparison.
• Use bzcmp when you only need compare-style status.
• Very large compressed files can still take time because they must be decompressed for comparison.