samefile

⚖️ a portable, POSIX-compliant implementation of Bash’s -ef test

Installation

L337

Make sure the executable named samefile in bin/ is either

• moved into a directory in $PATH, or
• added to $PATH.

Oh My Zsh

1. clone the repostory:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/LucasLarson/samefile "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-${HOME}/.oh-my-zsh/custom}"/plugins/samefile

2. Next, open the .zshrc file in your home directory
3. insert the word samefile between the parentheses on the line that begins with plugins=.
4. save and close the file, then source it with . "${HOME}"/.zshrc.

Usage

# not this
[ path/to/some/file -ef path/to/another/file ]
# and definitely not this
[[ path/to/some/file -ef path/to/another/file ]]

# but rather this
samefile path/to/some/file path/to/another/file
# or this
samefile --verbose path/to/some/file path/to/another/file
# or this
samefile -v path/to/some/file path/to/another/file

# returns a `0` exit status on success and `1` for failure
# just like `[`, `[[`, and `test`

Bash’s -ef and samefile both check that two files aren’t just similar, but are

1. the same exact file and have
2. the same exact inode values.