6.7 cmp -- File comparisons

The cmp module defines a function to compare files, taking all sort of short-cuts to make it a highly efficient operation.

The cmp module defines the following function:

cmp (f1, f2)

Compare two files given as names. The following tricks are used to optimize the comparisons:

• Files with identical type, size and mtime are assumed equal.
• Files with different type or size are never equal.
• The module only compares files it already compared if their signature (type, size and mtime) changed.
• No external programs are called.

Example:

>>> import cmp
>>> cmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'libundoc.tex')
1
>>> cmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'lib.tex')
0