filecmp Namespace Reference

Data Structures
class	dircmp

Functions
def	cmp
def	cmpfiles
def	demo

Variables
list	__all__ = ["cmp","dircmp","cmpfiles"]
dictionary	_cache = {}
int	BUFSIZE = 8

Detailed Description

Utilities for comparing files and directories.

Classes:
    dircmp

Functions:
    cmp(f1, f2, shallow=1, use_statcache=0) -> int
    cmpfiles(a, b, common) -> ([], [], [])

Function Documentation

def filecmp.cmp	(		f1,
			f2,
			shallow = 1,
			use_statcache = 0
	)

Compare two files.

Arguments:

f1 -- First file name

f2 -- Second file name

shallow -- Just check stat signature (do not read the files).
           defaults to 1.

use_statcache -- Do not stat() each file directly: go through
                 the statcache module for more efficiency.

Return value:

integer -- 1 if the files are the same, 0 otherwise.

This function uses a cache for past comparisons and the results,
with a cache invalidation mechanism relying on stale signatures.
Of course, if 'use_statcache' is true, this mechanism is defeated,
and the cache will never grow stale.

Definition at line 21 of file filecmp.py.

References aifc.open(), and stat.S_IFMT().

def cmp(f1, f2, shallow=1, use_statcache=0):
    """Compare two files.

    Arguments:

    f1 -- First file name

    f2 -- Second file name

    shallow -- Just check stat signature (do not read the files).
               defaults to 1.

    use_statcache -- Do not stat() each file directly: go through
                     the statcache module for more efficiency.

    Return value:

    integer -- 1 if the files are the same, 0 otherwise.

    This function uses a cache for past comparisons and the results,
    with a cache invalidation mechanism relying on stale signatures.
    Of course, if 'use_statcache' is true, this mechanism is defeated,
    and the cache will never grow stale.

    """
    if use_statcache:
        stat_function = statcache.stat
    else:
        stat_function = os.stat
    s1 = _sig(stat_function(f1))
    s2 = _sig(stat_function(f2))
    if s1[0] != stat.S_IFREG or s2[0] != stat.S_IFREG:
        return 0
    if shallow and s1 == s2:
        return 1
    if s1[1] != s2[1]:
        return 0

    result = _cache.get((f1, f2))
    if result and (s1, s2) == result[:2]:
        return result[2]
    outcome = _do_cmp(f1, f2)
    _cache[f1, f2] = s1, s2, outcome
    return outcome