NAME

compare-code - find files with similar code

VERSION

version 0.201

SYNOPSIS

This program is developed in an education/school environment. It's purpose is to help detect similiarities in the code of IT projects, and therefore making assessments (more) fair.

The script compares files containing source code (or any plain text) to each other. The general approach for comparison is: whitespace and comments are always removed (see --help for more), then the comparison is done using the Levenshtein algorithm. Future releases may bring more sophisticated techniques.

This program is written in the Perl Programming Language.

If you are unfamiliar with GNU/Linux you might want to read doc::Windows in the doc directory.

Example Usage

compare-code ./lib -i perl

compare-code -i cpp -f list_of_filepaths.txt -o html -p

find path/to/projects -type f -name Cow.java | compare-code -i java 

Options

compare-code [DIR...] [OPTIONS...]
 
Arguments:
  DIR             analyse files in given directory
                  Input can otherwise also be specified over:
                    - the option --file / -f
                    - STDIN, receiving filepaths (e.g. from a find command)
 
Options:
  --all,     -a   show all results in output
                  Don't hide skipped comparisons.
                  Will somethimes cause a lot of output.
  --basedir, -b   skip comparisons within projects under base directory
                  Folders one below will be seen as project directories.
                  Files inside projects will not be compared with each other.
                  (This will currently not work on Windows)
  --charset, -c   chars used for comparison
                  Define one or more subsets of chars, used to compare the files:
                    - visibles
                        all chars without witespace
                    - numsignes (default)
                        like visibles, but words ignored in meaning (but not in position)
                    - signes
                        only special chars, no words or numbers
  --file,    -f   file to read from (containing filepaths)
  --help,    -h   show this manual
  --in,      -i   input format, optimize for language
                  Comments get stripped from code.
                  Supportet arguments:
                    - hashy:  python, perl, bash
                    - slashy: php, js, java, cpp, cs, c
                    - html, xml
                    - txt (default, no effect)
  --mime,    -m   only compare if same MIME-type
                  This options needs the Perl Library File::LibMagic installed.
                  You will also need libmagic development files on your system.
  --out,     -o   output format
                  You can define an output format:
                    - html
                    - tab (default)
                    - csv
  --persist, -p   print result to file (instead STDOUT)
                  Saved in local directory with name pattern:
                    - comparison_[year-month-day-hour-minute]_[method].[format]
  --sort,    -s   sort data by line before comparison
                  Useful to ignore order of method declaration.
                  See --split if you need to sort by something else then by line.
  --split,   -t   Split files on something else then newline
                  You might want to split for sentences with '\.' in normal text.
                  Use this option together with --sort.
  --verbose, -v   show actually compared data on STDERR
  --yes,     -y   Don't prompt for questions
                  Program will start working without further confirmation.
                  (Answer all user prompts with [yes])

AUTHOR

Boris Däppen <bdaeppen.perl@gmail.com>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2023 by Boris Däppen.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.