On Sun, 11 Mar 2012 12:15:11 +1100, Chris Angelico wrote: > On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 9:52 AM, Steven D'Aprano > <steve+comp.lang.pyt...@pearwood.info> wrote: >> On Sat, 10 Mar 2012 15:48:48 +0100, Gelonida N wrote: Define >> "identical" and "the same". >> >> If I compile these two files: >> >> >> # file ham.py >> x = 23 >> def func(): >> a = 23 >> return a + 19 >> >> >> >> # file = spam.py >> def func(): >> return 42 >> >> tmp = 19 >> x = 4 + tmp >> del tmp >> >> >> do you expect spam.pyc and ham.pyc to count as "the same"? > > They do not contain the same code. They may contain code which has the > same effect, but it is not the same code.
To me, they do: they contain a function "func" which takes no arguments and returns 42, and a global "x" initialised to 23. Everything else is an implementation detail. I'm not being facetious. One should be asking what is the *purpose* of this question -- is it to detect when two pyc files contain the same *interface*, or to determine if they were generated from identical source code files (and if the later, do comments and whitespace matter)? What if one merely changed the order of definition? Instead of: def foo(): pass def bar(): pass one had this? def bar(): pass def foo(): pass It depends on why the OP cares if they are "identical". I can imagine use- cases where the right solution is to forget ideas about identical code, and just checksum the files (ignoring any timestamps). -- Steven -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list