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I have two env files, let's say x.env and y.env, the order of the variables is different, but the content could be the same but likely different.

Is there some tool I could use to diff the variables?

   env -i (
    # clear all envs
     source x.env;
     env | sort >  x.sh
    )

   env -i (
    # clear all envs
     source y.env;
     env | sort >  y.sh
    )

    diff x.sh y.sh

is that just about the best way? if there are multiple ones missing, it might make diffing noisy and not very useful, whereas comparing variable names one-by-one might be better..

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  • man comm may be of some help on your sorted files. Good luck. Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 16:10
  • After reading the sentence "the order of the variables is different, but the content could be the same but likely different", I'm not sure I know what's the same and what's different. Are the variable names the same, but their values are different? Do you want to catch cases like that? Or are you more interested in whether a particular variable is missing in one of the files, no matter their values? Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 17:42
  • With diff -u, the reports of deleted variables should be readable. They will appear as lines prefixed with - (minus). There is syntax coloring support for that in editors. Plus you have other options for diff tools, like meld or whatever. Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 19:44
  • @Kaz how is diff going to handle things that are out of order? could have same key/values but different order. Would appreciate an upvote if you understand. Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 20:35
  • 1
    Right, so you have diff in your solution. Make it diff -u for something that is easier to read. Commented Oct 5, 2023 at 1:55

1 Answer 1

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2

If you're running bash or another shell that allows inline command redirection,

comm -3 <(sort x.env) <(sort y.env)

Or, to source the variables as shown in your question, you can try this but beware of differences in LC_* locale variables that may affect the sorting order - and in turn cause comm to complain that the inputs aren't sorted:

comm -3 <(. x.env; env | sort) <(. y.env; env | sort)
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  • yeah the files have comments so the source command is better Commented Oct 3, 2023 at 20:30

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