Python - using filecmp to compare two or more files

# The filecmp module is a portable way to check
# whether two (or more) files are the same.

# The module only has two methods:
#   cmp(file1, file2)
#   cmpfiles(directory1, directory2, common)
import filecmp
# find more verbose filecmp python docs here  


# check whether two files are the same
# of course you need to have a /etc/hosts and .bak

#  for this example to work (feel free to change to filenames
#  that do exist on your setup)
if filecmp.cmp('/etc/hosts', '/etc/hosts.bak'):
    print "the files are the same"
else:
    print "the files are not the same"



# filecmp also allows you to compare directories
# you can use cmpfiles which returns 3 tuples:
#                           matches, mismatch, error
match, mismatch, error = filecmp.cmpfiles('folder1',
                                          'folder2',
                                            ['LICENSE.TXT',
                                             'README.TXT',
                                             'VERSION'])


print "Matching: ", match
print "Mismatched: ", mismatch
print "Errors: ", error

# output (for me):
# Matching: ['LICENSE.TXT', 'README.TXT']

# Mismatched: ['LICENSE']
# Errors: []