mjhjmtu

I am learning linux and was given this problem as my homework but i can't solve this that how we can compare two files content in shell mode.
(Here, we can assume that both files having text content like this
for eg.
$cat > f1
this is file 1)

$ cat duplicate_file.sh
echo "Enter file 1:"
read file1
echo "Enter file 2:"
read file2
cmp $file1 $file2 > newfile
x=` wc newfile | cut -d" " -f2 `
if [` $x -eq 0 `]
then
rm -i $file2
fi

I made this program but this ain't working!! So, Any suggestions??

There are many ways to solve this, but I'll go with what you've started.

First, don't forget the lead off the script with the interpreter string ("shebang"):

#!/bin/bash

echo "Enter file 1:"
read file1
echo "Enter file 2:"
read file2
cmp $file1 $file2 > newfile

At this point you could test a couple of things:

1. if newfile is not empty the files differ

if [ ! -s newfile ]; then
 rm -i $file2
fi

2. Test the exit code for cmp operation. If it is 0, the files match.

if [ `echo $?` == 0 ]; then
 rm -i $file2
fi

Also, your wc command isn't quite working. Try running it outside of the script. Do you get the result you're expecting?

First include shebang #! at the top like #!/bin/bash

You are having two errors:

Instead of

cmp $file1 $file2 > newfile,

it should be

cmp "$file1" "$file2" > newfile

as these values of these variables may have spaces between them.

Second error:

Instead of

if [` $x -eq 0 `]

it should be if [ "$x" -eq 0 ].

Also if you are having spaces in the file names then it should be:

rm -i "$file2" otherwise it can delete multiple files.