Compare two sorted files line by line. Output the lines that are common, plus the lines that are unique.
Syntax
comm [options]... File1 File2
Options
-1 Suppress lines unique to file1
-2 Suppress lines unique to file2
-3 Suppress lines that appear in both files
A file name of '-' means standard input.
With no options, 'comm' produces three text columns as output. The utility reads file1 and file2, which should be sorted lexically.
This will output:
Lines only in file1; Lines only in file2; Lines in both files.
If printing of a column is suppressed, the output will be padded with TAB characters.
The options -1, -2, and -3 suppress printing of the corresponding columns.
The filename '-' means standard input.
Each column will have a number of tab characters prepended to it equal to
the number of lower numbered columns that are being printed. For example, if column number two is being suppressed, lines printed in column
number one will not have any tabs preceding them, and lines printed in
column number three will have one.
Before 'comm' can be used, the input files must be sorted using
the collating sequence specified by the 'LC_COLLATE' locale, with trailing newlines
significant. If an input file ends in a non-newline character, a newline is
silently appended. The 'sort' command with no options always outputs a file
that is suitable input to 'comm'.
Unlike some other comparison utilities, 'comm' has an exit status that does not depend on the result of the comparison. Upon normal completion 'comm' produces an exit code of zero. If there is an error it exits with nonzero status.
Examples
Return the unique lines in the file words.txt that don't exist in countries.txt
$ comm -23 <(sort words.txt | uniq) <(sort countries.txt | uniq)
Return the lines that are in both words.txt and countries.txt:
$ comm -12 <(sort words.txt | uniq) <(sort countries.txt | uniq)
Return the files that are in the directory 'march' but not in the directory 'april':
$ comm -23 <(ls march) <(ls april)
Return the files that are in the directory 'march' but not in the directory 'april':
$ comm -23 <(ls march) <(ls april)
Return the files that are in the directory 'april' but not in the directory 'march':
$ comm -13 <(ls march) <(ls april)
"You don't sew with a fork, so I see no reason to eat with knitting needles" ~ Miss Piggy, on eating Chinese Food
Related linux commands:
cmp - Compare two files.
diff - Display the differences between two files.
diff3 - Show differences among three files.
sdiff - merge two files interactively.
head - Output the first part of file(s).
sort - Sort text files.
Command substitution - `with backquotes`
Equivalent Windows commands: COMP / FC - Compare and display Characters/Lines which do not match.
(also the WINDIFF GUI)