cmp efficiency

[Aled Morris]

In article <3048 at ccicpg.UUCP>, nick at ccicpg.UUCP (Nick Crossley) writes:
>>While we're on the subject of efficiency, cmp is coded wrong. It should
>>first stat the two files to be compared. If the character count is different,
>>so are the files. And files tend to be different more often than the same.
[...]
>        if the files are not the same size, cmp will tell you if they have the
>same contents up to the length of the shorter (cmp will say 'EOF on file 1/2').
>I find this useful in some contexts, and would not want cmp just to give up
>if the sizes differed.

I never use "cmp" and to read its output, I only ever use it with "-s".
If you specify this flag, cmp really ought to look at the file sizes first.

Aled Morris
systems programmer

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