How to use the command xzcmp (with examples)

The xzcmp command is used to compare two files that have been compressed using xz, lzma, gzip, bzip2, lzop, or zstd. It works by invoking the cmp command on the compressed files, allowing you to determine if they are identical or not.

Use case 1: Compare two specific files

Code:

xzcmp path/to/file1 path/to/file2

Motivation:

You may want to use this use case when you have two compressed files and you want to check if they are identical. This can be useful, for example, when you have backup files that have been compressed using different compression algorithms and you want to verify if they contain the same data.

Explanation:

• path/to/file1: This is the path of the first compressed file that you want to compare.
• path/to/file2: This is the path of the second compressed file that you want to compare.

Example output:

file1.xz file2.xz differ: char 65, line 3

This output indicates that the files file1.xz and file2.xz are not identical. The difference in content is at character 65, line 3.

Conclusion:

The xzcmp command is a useful tool for comparing compressed files. By using this command, you can easily determine if two compressed files are identical or not. This can be helpful in various scenarios, such as verifying the integrity of backups or comparing the contents of compressed archives.