UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi Guys,

How can I compare 2 text files and show the differences between the 2 files but have some of the text ignored?

Example

File1 File2

Thomas Thomass !1st name!
David Davidd !2nd name!
John John !3rd name!


So, Thomass and Davidd are in file2 but not in file1. But I would want to ignore or not take into account "!1stname! and !2nd name!".

The output I would desire would be:

Thomass !1st name!
Davidd !2nd name!

John !3rd name! would not appear in the output because John and John match. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Jimmy

You can use awk to strip off the first field - or cut for comparison purposes and then use the whole line to write out your desired output. See the man page for both commands.