In Python, is there a concise way of comparing whether the contents of two text files are the same?
Question: I don't care what the differences are. I just want to know whether the
contents are different.


Answer: The low level way:

    
    
    from __future__ import with_statement
    with open(filename1) as f1:
       with open(filename2) as f2:
          if f1.read() == f2.read():
             ...
    

The high level way:

    
    
    import filecmp
    if filecmp.cmp(filename1, filename2, shallow=False):
       ...
    

