Diff files present in two different directories

diff, shell, unix

Solution

You can use the `diff` command for that:

diff -bur folder1/ folder2/

This will output a recursive diff that ignore spaces, with a unified context:

- b flag means ignoring whitespace

- u flag means a unified context (3 lines before and after)

- r flag means recursive

Problem

I have two directories with the same list of files. I need to compare all the files present in both the directories using the `diff` command. Is there a simple command line option to do it, or do I have to write a shell script to get the file listing and then iterate through them?

Original source