= comparator -- code for finding common sections in source trees =

comparator is a program for rapidly finding common segments in large
source-code trees.  See the manual page for instructions.  It comes
with a filtering postprecessor, filterator.

Besides the production C code, the distribution also includes 
working Python versions.  These were used to prototype the concept.

Run "make" to build the software, "make check" to regression-test it.

If you want to write a new normalizer, see linebyline.c for an example
of how it's done.

The document scf-standard.xml describes file interchange formata
for programs that wish to interoperate with comparator.

There are a few other programs that do similar things:

srcdupchk - the shred algorithm in C++
	http://www.randomhacks.net/stories/srcdupchk-release.html

ctcompare - C Token Comparator
	http://minnie.tuhs.org/Programs/Ctcompare/

See the NEWS file for recent developments.

This code is commonly packaged as "comparator".

image:https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/comparator.svg[Repology
package status]
