filecmp module in Python- Comparing files

The filecmp module in the standard library contains useful functions for comparing files and directories.

We will first have to import the module in the program before using it.

import filecmp

print(filecmp)
 Visualize 

<module 'filecmp' from '/app/.heroku/python/lib/python3.11/filecmp.py'>[Finished in 0.011087319115176797s]

Compare Two Files

The cmp() function  is the basic tool offered by the filecmp module. It checks if two files have the same basic properties and can be considered as duplicates.

The cmp() function has the following syntax:

filecmp.cmp(file1, file2, shallow = True)

The cmp() function returns True if both file1 and file2 are the same and False if they are different. If the shallow parameters is True, files will be regarded as equal  if  only their metadata (e.g. type, size, modified time) are the same. If the shallow parameter is False, the contents of the files will be compared byte-to-byte.

Consider the following working directory:

wdir
├── main.py
│
├── test_file1.txt
│
│  
└── test_file2.txt

#main.py

import filecmp

f1 = 'test_file1.txt'
f2 ='test_file2.txt'

print(cmp(f1, f2))
 Visualize 

If the cmp() function returns True, it means that the two files, test_file1.txt and test_file2.txt, have identical metadata like size, modification time, creation time, e.tc. Essentially, it means that if you call the os.stat() function on both files, the returned values would be mostly the same. 

import os.stat

f1 = 'file_test1.txt'
f2 = 'file_test2.txt'

print('f1: ', os.stat(f1))
print('f2: ', os.stat(f2))
 Visualize 

When the shallow parameter is True like in the previous example, the cmp() function returns True if the files are identical in terms of their basic properties as given by os.stat. This would suffice in most cases but does not certainly mean that the content  is identical. 

To check for absolute content equality, you would need to  set the shallow parameter to False. This way, the cmp() function compares the content of the two files byte-by-byte. This ensures that even small differences in the content of the files are not ignored and the comparison is more accurate. It also means that the comparison takes longer to execute due to the extra checks.

import filecmp

f1 = 'test_file1.txt'
f2 ='test_file2.txt'

print(cmp(f1, f2, shallow = False))
 Visualize 

Compare files across two directories

The cmpfiles() function compares a set of files across two directories non-recursively. It has the following syntax:

cmpfiles('dir1', 'dir2', common, shallow = True)

Where dir1 and dir2 are the names of the two directories and common is a list of names of the files to be compared which are common in both directories.

The function returns a tuple of three lists. The lists are as highlighted below:

Consider the following working directory structure.

wdir
├── main.py
├── first_dir
│   ├── hello.txt  
│   ├── demo.txt
│   ├── data.txt
│   └── simple.txt
└── second_dir
    ├── hello.txt 
    ├── demo.txt
    └── data.txt

#main.py

import filecmp

common_files = ['hello.txt', 'demo.txt', 'data.txt', 'simple.txt']
match, mismatch, errors = filecmp.cmpfiles('first_dir', 'second_dir', common = common_files )

print('Matched: ', match)
print('Mismatch: ',  mismatch)
print('Erros: ', erros)
 Visualize 

In the above example, it means that files named hello.txt and data.txt  exists in both first_dir and second_dir and have identical properties. 'demo.txt'  exists in both directories but have different property. And  'simple.txt' could not be compared due to some reason, in the above case we know that the reason is because it does not exist in second_dir.

Typing the names of the common files manually like we previously did can be tedious and sometimes impractical if the two directories are large and have many files. In such a case we can use the os.listdir alongside os.isfile function to get programmatically the name of the files in both directories, as shown below:

import filecmp, os

d1_files = {f for f in os.listdir('first_dir') 
            if os.path.isfile(os.path.join('first_dir',f))
            }
d2_files = {f for f in os.listdir('second_dir')
            if os.path.isfile(os.path.join('second_dir',f)) 
           }

common_files = d1_files | d2_files

print('Common: ', common_files)

match, mismatch, errors = filecmp.cmpfiles('first_dir', 'second_dir', common = common_files )

print('Matched: ', match)
print('Mismatch: ',  mismatch)
print('Erros: ', errors)
 Visualize 

Compare Directories

The filecmp module contains the dircmp class for comparing two directories. The class provides a more detailed report of the differences between the two directories, including sub-directories and files that are present in one directory but not the other.

We start by creating a dircmp() object. The constructor has the following syntax:

dircmp(dir1, dir2, ignore=None, hide=None)

#main.py

import filecmp

cmp_result = filecmp.dircmp('first_dir', 'second_dir')
cmp_result.report()
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As shown above, the report() method displays a message showing information of the the two directories such as the common files, common directories, differing files, etc.

dircmp objects have some defined attributes that lets you retrieve information about the compared directories and their contents. Some of the attributes are shown in the following table:

#main.py

import filecmp

cmp_result = filecmp.dircmp('first_dir', 'second_dir')
print(cmp_result.common)
print(cmp_result.left_only)
print(cmp_result.right_only)
 Visualize 

Reports on sub-directories

The dircmp object provides two methods for comparing files recursively, report_partial_closure() and report_full_closure().

The report_partial_closure() method displays a report on the differences between dir1 and dir2 as well as a report on common immediate directories.

The report_full_closure() method is like the report_partial_closer() but fully recursive meaning that it as well reports on all sub-directories in dir1 and dir2 not just the immediate ones.

#main.py

import filecmp

cmp_result = filecmp.dircmp('first_dir', 'second_dir')
cmp_result.report_full_closure()
 Visualize