NAME

       gdalcompare - gdalcompare.py compare two images

SYNOPSIS

       gdalcompare.py [-sds] golden_file new_file

DESCRIPTION

       The gdalcompare.py script compares two GDAL supported datasets and reports the
       differences. In addition to reporting differences to the standard out the script will also
       return the difference count in it's exit value.

       Image pixels, and various metadata are checked. There is also a byte by byte comparison
       done which will count as one difference. So if it is only important that the GDAL visible
       data is identical a difference count of 1 (the binary difference) should be considered
       acceptable.

       -sds:
           If this flag is passed the script will compare all subdatasets that are part of the
           dataset, otherwise subdatasets are ignored.

       golden_file:
           The file that is considered correct, referred to as the golden file.

       new_file:
           The file being compared to the golden file, referred to as the new file.

       Note that the gdalcompare.py script can also be called as a library from python code
       though it is not typically in the python path for including. The primary entry point is
       gdalcompare.compare() which takes a golden gdal.Dataset and a new gdal.Dataset as
       arguments and returns a difference count (excluding the binary comparison). The
       gdalcompare.compare_sds() entry point can be used to compare subdatasets.

AUTHORS

       Frank Warmerdam warmerdam@pobox.com