| \section{\module{filecmp} --- |
| File Comparisons} |
| |
| \declaremodule{standard}{filecmp} |
| \sectionauthor{Moshe Zadka}{mzadka@geocities.com} |
| \modulesynopsis{Compare files efficiently.} |
| |
| The \module{filecmp} module defines a function to compare files, taking all |
| sort of short-cuts to make it a highly efficient operation. |
| |
| The \module{filecmp} module defines the following function: |
| |
| \begin{funcdesc}{cmp}{f1, f2\optional{, shallow\optional{, use_statcache}}} |
| Compare the files named \var{f1} and \var{f2}, returning \code{1} |
| if they seem equal, \code{0} otherwise. |
| |
| Unless \var{shallow} is given and is false, files with identical |
| \function{os.stat()} signatures are taken to be equal. If |
| \var{use_statcache} is given and is true, |
| \function{statcache.stat()} will be called rather then \var{os.stat()}. |
| |
| Files that were compared using this function will not be compared again |
| unless their \function{os.stat()} signature changes. Note that using |
| \var{use_statcache} true will cause the cache invalidation mechanism to |
| fail --- the stale stat value will be used from \refmodule{statcache}'s |
| cache. |
| |
| Note that no external programs are called from this module giving it |
| portability and efficiency. |
| \end{funcdesc} |
| |
| Example: |
| |
| \begin{verbatim} |
| >>> import filecmp |
| >>> filecmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'libundoc.tex') |
| 1 |
| >>> filecmp.cmp('libundoc.tex', 'lib.tex') |
| 0 |
| \end{verbatim} |