Comparing 2 files

ruby-talk
1

I'm very new to Ruby. I'm wondering if it is possible to compare 2 text files and if those files have any differences in them that I can then automatically send myself an email stating that the 2 files are not the same. Thanks for any help. I tried using ruby_diff but I don't think it will work for my purposes.

Aaron

2

Aaron Scott wrote:

I'm very new to Ruby. I'm wondering if it is possible to compare 2 text
files and if those files have any differences in them that I can then
automatically send myself an email stating that the 2 files are not the
same. Thanks for any help. I tried using ruby_diff but I don't think
it will work for my purposes.

Aaron

ri FileUtils#compare_file

------------------------------------------------- FileUtils#compare_file
     compare_file(a, b)

···

------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Returns true if the contents of a file A and a file B are
     identical.

       FileUtils.compare_file('somefile', 'somefile') #=> true
       FileUtils.compare_file('/bin/cp', '/bin/mv') #=> maybe false

     (also known as identical?, cmp)
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

3

Aaron Scott wrote:

I'm wondering if it is possible to compare 2 text
files and if those files have any differences in them that I can then
automatically send myself an email stating that the 2 files are not the
same.

The first thing you could try is to stat the files (builtin File::Stat
class) and see if there are any relevant differences between them (e.g.
size, mtime).

Or you could ask the OS to do a diff on the files.

Or you could read each file into a string and compare the two strings.

Or...

···

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Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.

4

Thanks That worked perfectly.

Aaron Scott
Help Desk Technician
MedAlliance Management Group, Inc.
Waterbrooke Professional Park
2312 Knob Creek Road, Suite 200
Johnson City, Tennessee 37604
Phone: 423.915.1126 x 18
Fax: 423.915.0635
Web: www.medalliance.md

···

-----Original Message-----
From: rmagick@gmail.com [mailto:rmagick@gmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2008 12:24 PM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: Re: Comparing 2 files.

Aaron Scott wrote:

I'm very new to Ruby. I'm wondering if it is possible to compare 2 text
files and if those files have any differences in them that I can then
automatically send myself an email stating that the 2 files are not the
same. Thanks for any help. I tried using ruby_diff but I don't think
it will work for my purposes.

Aaron

ri FileUtils#compare_file

------------------------------------------------- FileUtils#compare_file
     compare_file(a, b)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Returns true if the contents of a file A and a file B are
     identical.

       FileUtils.compare_file('somefile', 'somefile') #=> true
       FileUtils.compare_file('/bin/cp', '/bin/mv') #=> maybe false

     (also known as identical?, cmp)
--
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/\.