#! /usr/bin/env python import sys filename1 = sys.argv[1] filename2 = sys.argv[2] file1 = open (filename1, "r") file2 = open (filename2, "r") namelen = max (len (filename1), len (filename2)) linenum = 0 while True: linenum = linenum + 1 line1 = file1.readline () line2 = file2.readline () if line1 != line2: print "line %s:" % linenum print "%*s -- %s" % (namelen, filename1, line1.rstrip ()) print "%*s -- %s" % (namelen, filename2, line2.rstrip ()) break elif line1 == line2 == "": break