Doc/lib/libfilecmp.tex

   1 \section{\module{filecmp} ---
   2          File Comparisons}
   3
   4 \declaremodule{standard}{filecmp}
   5 \sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{mzadka@geocities.com}
   6 \modulesynopsis{Compare files efficiently.}
   7
   8 The \module{filecmp} module defines a function to compare files, taking all
   9 sort of short-cuts to make it a highly efficient operation.
  10
  11 The \module{filecmp} module defines the following function:
  12
  13 \begin{funcdesc}{cmp}{f1, f2\optional{, shallow\optional{, use_statcache}}}
  14 Compare the files named \var{f1} and \var{f2}, returning \code{1}
  15 if they seem equal, \code{0} otherwise.
  16
  17 Unless \var{shallow} is given and is false, files with identical
  18 \function{os.stat()} signatures are taken to be equal. If
  19 \var{use_statcache} is given and is true,
  20 \function{statcache.stat()} will be called rather then \var{os.stat()}.
  21
  22 Files that were compared using this function will not be compared again
  23 unless their \function{os.stat()} signature changes. Note that using
  24 \var{use_statcache} true will cause the cache invalidation mechanism to
  25 fail --- the stale stat value will be used from \refmodule{statcache}'s
  26 cache.
  27
  28 Note that no external programs are called from this module giving it
  29 portability and efficiency.
  30 \end{funcdesc}
  31
  32 Example:
  33
  34 \begin{verbatim}
  35 >>> import filecmp
  36 >>> filecmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'libundoc.tex')
  37 1
  38 >>> filecmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'lib.tex')
  39 0
  40 \end{verbatim}