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COMPARE                                                   CMS Transient command

Use the COMPARE command to compare two CMS disk files of fixed- or
variable-length format on a record-for-record basis and to display dissimilar
records at the terminal.  The format of the COMPARE command is:
+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+
| COMpare  | fileid1 fileid2 [( COL 1|mmm-[lrecl|nnn] [)]                     |
+----------+------------------------------------------------------------------+
where:

fileid1 fileid2
         are the file identifiers of the files to be compared.  An equal sign
         may be coded for one or more of the file identifiers for fileid2 in
         any combination except '= = ='.  All three file identifiers (filename,
         filetype, filemode) must be specified for each fileid.  An equal sign
         coded in fileid2 implies that the file identifier in that position is
         identical to the corresponding file identifier in fileid1.

Option:

COL mmm-[nnn]
         defines specific columns to be compared.  The comparison begins at
         position mmm of each record.  The comparison proceeds up to and
         including column nnn.  The hyphen (-) is required.  If column nnn is
         not specified, the default ending position is the last character of
         each record (the logical record length).


Usage Notes:

1.  To find out whether two files are identical, enter both file
    identifications, as follows:
         compare test1 assemble a test1 assemble b
    or
         compare test1 assemble a = = b
    Any records that do not match are displayed at the terminal.

2.  To stop the display of dissimilar records, use the CMS Immediate
    command HT.

3.  If a file does not exist on a specified disk, the read-only
    extensions of that disk are also searched.  The complete fileids
    of the files being compared are displayed in message DMSCMP179I.

Responses:

DMSCMP179I      Comparing fn ft fm with fn ft fm

    This message identifies the files being compared.  If the files are the
    same (in the columns indicated), this message is followed by the CMS ready
    message.  If any records do not match, the records are displayed.  When all
    dissimilar records have been displayed the message DMSCMP209W is issued.