Compare files in a directory

Shell Programming and Scripting
1

Hi friends, can anyone help me comparing files in a directory. I have files f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6, f7, f8 in a directory each created on a daily basis as f1 on day1, f2 on day2, f3 on day3, f4 on day4, f5 on day5, f6 on day6, f7 on day7, f8 on day8. I need ignore the latest two files (here f7 and f8) from comparison.
I just need to compare files f1, f2, f3, f4, f5, f6 and print the difference. Also can i compare only a set of files say f4, f5, f6 as the file count increases on a daily basis ignoring the latest two files.
Any clue or suggestions would be great.
Thanks in advance!
nmattam

2 
DIR1=/xxx
DIR2=/yyy

cd $DIR!

for file in `ls f* |sort -rn |sed '1,2d' `
do
    diff file $DIR2/$file
done
3

Hi rdcwayx, Just tried with the code you have given. I can get the file list excluding the latest 2 files as i expected using `ls f* |sort -rn |sed '1,2d' `
. I am not sure how the diff is done on all the rest of the files.Can you please explain? I am looking for diff of files f1 to f6, the output should be intersection of each of the file contents.
f1: a, b, c
f2: a, b, c, d
f3: a, b, c, d
f4: a, b, c, d, e
f5: a, b, c
f6: a, b, c, d, e, f
Output should result in diff of all files containing d, e, f. Thanks in advance!

4

run the diff directly, get the output, you can understand it.

If still not:

man diff
5

Thanks for help rdcwayx. I find this when executing the command.

diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_employee_views.2011_week14: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_employee_views.2011_week13: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_employee_views.2011_week12: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_employee_views.2011_week11: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_employee_views.2011_week10: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week09: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week08: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week07: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week06: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week05: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week04: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week03: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week02: No such file or directory
diff: file: No such file or directory
diff: avail_logs1/departed_week01: No such file or directory
6

Oh, my fault.

DIR1=/xxx
DIR2=/yyy

cd $DIR!

for file in `ls f* |sort -rn |sed '1,2d' `
do
    diff $file $DIR2/$file
done