Knowing the type

In linux, extensions of file dont help the system determine what they are (A .txt file could be an executable)

file can be used to list the type

Listing differences in files

For this diff is used (Or diff3)

It can compare two files(normally text files, for binary files use cmp)

Can be used to generate a “patch” file that describes all changes to a file(s):

diff -Nur file1 file2 > patchFile

Has multiple options to tune the comparison (See man diff)

Once the patch files are generated, patch can be used to apply a patch to a file or directory

Is easier (and smaller) to distribute patches to change files and configs.

patch -p1 < patchfile ## Can be used to patch entire directories
patch originalfile patchfile