Compare Two Files Using Comm

by Ramesh

Comm command is used to compare two sorted files line by line.

syntax: comm [OPTION]... FILE1 FILE2

This command will display the lines unique in file1, lines unique in file2, and lines common to both file1 and file2 as shown below.

In the below example,

• First column displays the lines unique in file1 ( i.e name_list.txt )
• Second column displays the lines unique in file2 ( i.e name_list_new.txt )
• Third column displays the lines that are common in both the files.

$ cat name_list.txt
 
Bram Moolenaar
Ken Thompson
Linus Torvalds
 
$ cat name_list_new.txt
 
Bram Moolenaar
Dennis Ritchie
Richard Stallman
 
$ comm name_list.txt name_list_new.txt
            Bram Moolenaar
        Dennis Ritchie
    Ken Thompson
    Linus Torvalds
        Richard Stallman