File::Compare
See the current Perl documentation for File::Compare.
Here is our local, out-dated (pre-5.6) version:
File::Compare - Compare files or filehandles
use File::Compare;
if (compare("file1","file2") == 0) { print "They're equal\n"; }
The File::Compare::compare function compares the contents of two sources, each of which can be a file or a file handle. It is exported from File::Compare by default.
File::Compare::cmp is a synonym for File::Compare::compare. It is exported from File::Compare only by request.
RETURN
File::Compare::compare return 0 if the files are equal, 1 if the files are unequal, or -1 if an error was encountered.
AUTHOR
File::Compare was written by Nick Ing-Simmons. Its original documentation was written by Chip Salzenberg.