Why a file Compare Utility? Organizations that have to deal with data accessed centrally by many individuals need to integrate and synchronize the changes made in the files. When many individuals have to use the file and make changes according to their needs anyone supervising over them needs to know which file is the right one and which is not. In order to know the changes made in files one either has to do the work manually or must have software that can highlight and find changes made in the files. The file compare utility is nothing but a software programme that looks out for changes in files and displays them automatically to the user thus saving the trouble of doing the job manually. Legal professionals, people involved in software development, and other professionals who have to deal with lot of data daily stand to benefit from the file compare utility. There are many such software available in the market, some are free, and some are not. One can select the programme according to one's needs.

The Open Source file Compare Utilities. The open source file compare utilities are free for use because their source code is made available to the users. The Cmp (Unix) is one such free software that is compatible with the Unix operating system. It is a command line programme and has the ability to differentiate between any types of file. The result is written to the standard output. When the files are, same this programme remains silent by default and it displays results when t it detects the first difference at the byte and line number. The diff is another free file compare utility, which can show variations in the two files. This tool shows the differences that are made per line in the text files. The other versions of the tool also work to show changes in binary files. The algorithm of this utility is the LCS or the Longest Common Sequence.

The Kompare tool can find difference between text files and two directories. Kompare is Linux compatible system. In the comparison of two directories, Kompare shows the directory tree of the two directories and the result has only pairs of similar files and directories. When the user clicks on the entry, he sees the difference between the files. The WinMerge is the Windows based file compare utility and has features like Visual SourceSafe integration, an in built editor, different levels of undos, and can compare entire directories.

The paid file compare utilities are Araxis Merge, ExamDiffPro, Beyond Compare, Active File Compare and others. The features of the Araxis Merge are it can compare file and folder hierarchy in two and three way, the difference are highlighted in color, it can compare cut and pasted text files and much more. Beyond Compare can merge folders, handle source codes, manage zip archives and ftp sites. The utility can as well synchronize source code changes and update websites. The Beyond Compare tool is windows compatible.