Compare Configuration Files of Text Format

Tasks

• Compares two configuration files and outputs a file with detailed analysis
• Identical line: Key/value pair which are identical (same) in both the files
• Different Values: Key/value where the value for a key is different in both the files.
• Duplicate: It reports all the key will are duplicate in the same file.
• In addition to comparing the files with key/value format, it can also be used to compare files in plain text format

Compare file MetaBot offers the following functionality:

Simply put this bot is used for comparing configuration files of text format.
Configuration files mostly have key and value pairs, separated by a separator. Most of the file comparison utilities can only compare line to line, which means even if the same configuration exists in two files but on a different line number, the files would be classified as different.
This bot compares the key/value pair of one file with the key/value pair of a second file - regardless of key/value pairs being on different lines..
The bot creates an output file after comparing both the files and prints the following output:
o Identical line: Key/value pair which are identical (same) in both the files
o Different Values: Key/value where the value for a key is different in both the files.
o First file Only: Key/value pair which only exists in the first file, not the second.
o Second file Only: Key/value pair which only exists in the second file, not the first
o Duplicate: It reports all the key values which are duplicated in the file
This bot is especially helpful when files from different environments (such as development/UAT/Production) need to be compared. Very quickly you can compare files and report all the differences in various configuration files.
In addition to comparing the files with key/value format, it can be used to compare files in plain text format as well.