diffoscope

name	diffoscope
description	Use this skill when the user wants to deeply compare files, archives, or directories, debug why two builds differ, or analyze binary differences.

diffoscope Plugin

In-depth comparison of files, archives, and directories. Recursively unpacks archives and transforms binary formats into human-readable form for comparison.

Commands

Info

• diffoscope self version — Print diffoscope version
• diffoscope self list-tools — List external tools used by diffoscope

Comparison

• diffoscope compare files — Compare two files/archives/directories in-depth

Utility

• diffoscope _ _ — Passthrough to diffoscope CLI

Usage Examples

• "Compare two tarballs to find the difference"
• "Deep comparison of two .deb packages"
• "Find what changed between two ISO images"
• "Compare directories recursively"

Installation

pip install diffoscope

Or via package manager:

brew install diffoscope
apt install diffoscope

Examples

# Compare two files
diffoscope compare files file1.txt file2.txt

# Compare with HTML output
diffoscope compare files --html report.html package1.deb package2.deb

# Compare with JSON output
diffoscope compare files --json report.json dir1/ dir2/

# Compare with text output to file
diffoscope compare files --text report.txt old.tar.gz new.tar.gz

# List external tools
diffoscope self list-tools

# Compare ISO images
diffoscope compare files image1.iso image2.iso

# Passthrough for custom options
diffoscope _ _ --max-page-size 1024 file1.bin file2.bin

Key Features

• Recursive unpacking — Archives within archives within archives
• Wide format support — 150+ file formats including deb, rpm, tar, zip, ISO, ELF, PDF, images, SQLite, Git repos
• Multiple output formats — Text, HTML, JSON
• Fuzzy matching — Handles file renames between versions
• Hexdump fallback — Shows hex differences for unknown formats
• Extensible — Easy to add support for new formats

Notes

• Part of the reproducible-builds.org project
• Supports comparing directories, archives, and individual files
• External tools enhance comparison quality (use diffoscope self list-tools to see what's available)
• Try online at https://try.diffoscope.org