The diff_bytes() function of Python difflib module

Function signature:

diff_bytes(dfunc, a, b, fromfile=b'', tofile=b'',

fromfiledate=b'', tofiledate=b'', n=3, lineterm=b'\n')

Parameters:

dfunc – A function that computes the differences between the two lists of bytes.

a – Version one of the bytes passed as list of bytes.

b – Version two of the bytes passed as list of bytes.

fromfile – A Python bytes object that denotes the name for version one.

tofile – A Python bytes object that denotes the name for version two.

fromfiledate – Timestamp of version one as bytes.

tofiledate – Timestamp of version two as bytes.

n – The number of context lines to appear in output. An integer value.

lineterm – The line terminator. The default value is “\n”.

Overview:

The function diff_bytes() finds the difference between two lists of bytes and returns them in the same encoding as the original bytes.
The diff_bytes() accepts a function that can find the difference between the two lists of bytes. Functions like unified_diff() or context_diff() can be passed for the dfunc parameter for computing the differences between the two versions of bytes.

Example:

# Example Python program that finds
# the differences between two bytes
# objects using the function
# difflib.diff_bytes()
import difflib

# Lists of bytes
bytes1 = [b"A tree that looks at God all day,",
b"And lifts her leafy arms to pray;"]

bytes2 = [b"A tree that may in Summer wear",
b"A nest of robins in her hair;"]

# Find the differences
diffs = difflib.diff_bytes(difflib.unified_diff,
bytes1,
bytes2)
# Print the differences
for diff in diffs:
print(diff)

Output:

b'--- \n'
b'+++ \n'
b'@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@\n'
b'-A tree that looks at God all day,'
b'-And lifts her leafy arms to pray;'
b'+A tree that may in Summer wear'
b'+A nest of robins in her hair;'