File::Compare Binary Files

ddexter has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi everyone,
My question is about the functionality of the File::Compare module.

If I do

compare("file1", "file2");

(where file1 and file2 are binary files) will the compare function check to see if the binary files are actually the same, or will it just compare the characters in the file?

If compare doesn't have the functionality I'm looking for, I have been considering

if(system("diff file1 file2 > /dev/null") == 0) {they are the same...}

Any suggestions about a better way are also appreciated. Thank you!

Comment on File::Compare Binary Files Select or Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: File::Compare Binary Files by moritz (Cardinal) on May 23, 2008 at 22:55 UTC
Looking at the source reveals that File::Compare actually does a binary comparison (and the doc states that there is a separate `compare_text` sub). So use that. BTW `diff` is also text-oriented, for binary files you'd use the unix utility `cmp` instead.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: File::Compare Binary Files by skx (Parson) on May 24, 2008 at 11:18 UTC
This is a suggestion of another method, rather than a comment on the module you mention. When I want to compare (binary) files I do two things: Use `stat` to get the filesize. Use Digest::SHA1 to get a checksum of the file contents. Sure collisions are possible, but for my cases I find that if the SHA1 hash and file sizes match then the files are identical enough! Steve --	[reply]
Re^2: File::Compare Binary Files by moritz (Cardinal) on May 24, 2008 at 11:33 UTC
If you just want to compare two files (and no n-way comparisons) File::Compare can be much faster than calculating a hash because it can abort at the first difference, while the hash algorithm always has to go through both files entirely.	[reply]
Re: File::Compare Binary Files by ddexter (Initiate) on May 27, 2008 at 16:49 UTC
Thank you all for your help!	[reply]