---
name: "tardiff"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "tardiff"
version: "0.1-7"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tardiff"
---

# tardiff(1)

Compare two tarballs and report differences

## NAME

TarDiff - Compare two tarballs and report differences

## DESCRIPTION

TarDiff compares the contents of two tarballs and reports on any differences found between them. Its use is mainly for release managers who can use it as a QA tool to make sure no files have accidentally been left over or were added by mistake. TarDiff supports compressed tarballs, diff statistics and suppression of GNU autotool changes.

## SYNOPSIS

tardiff *\[options\]* **file1.tar** **file2.tar***\[.gz/.bz2\]*

## OPTIONS

**-m**, **--modified** Report on all changed files, including those present in both tarballs

- **-l**, **--list** List all files, even those not changed at all

  - **-a**, **--autoskip** Skip files which belong to the GNU autotools (for **--modified**)

  - **-s**, **--stats** Run statistics (diffstat) on all modified files (for **--modified**)

  **-v**, **--version**  Display tardiff version

- **-h**, **--help** Display this help screen

  ## SEE ALSO

[*tar*(1)](/tar/1.md), [*tardy*(1)](/tardy/1.md)

## AUTHOR

TarDiff was written by Josef Spillner \<*josef@coolprojects.org*\>. This man page was written by Axel Beckert \<*abe@debian.org*\> based on [help2man(1)](/help2man/1.md) output for the Debian Project, but may be used by others.

## COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 2005 Josef Spillner \<*josef@coolprojects.org*\>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation.