msidiff(1)

💖 msidiff(1) — the manual, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, so this is the General Commands Manual page for msidiff, and I need you to sit down because it's genuinely iconic. it's from the msitools crew. we're gonna go through it together, no skipping, fr fr 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

msidiff — compare Windows Installer packages

like, it looks at two .MSI files and tells you what's different. that's the whole job. main character energy honestly 👑

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

msidiff [<option> [<option> ...]] [<diff-options>] <source MSI> <target MSI>

so you give it a bunch of options if you want, then some diff-flavoured options, then the two MSI files you're comparing. source first, target second. order matters, don't play with me 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

msidiff compares Windows Installer packages (.MSI files). that's it. that's the vibe. two packages walk in, one comparison walks out ✨

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• -t, --tables — compare the MSI tables as text. this is the default, so if you just run it with no flags, this is what you get 🎀
• -l, --list — compare the file lists inside the packages.
• -L, --long-list — compare the detailed file lists inside the packages. capital L for extra detail, obviously.
• -h, --help — print a help message and dip out. classic.
• -v, --version — print version info and bounce.

okay important: you can specify more than one of -t, -l or -L at the same time. they stack, bestie. stack them 🍓

and now the <diff-options> tea, because this part is lowkey the trickiest and I don't want you caught out:

<diff-options> get passed straight through to diff(1). so how does msidiff know where your msidiff options end and your diff options begin? here's the rule, listen carefully:

• the first repeated argument of the options listed above, or the first argument that starts with a - but isn't a valid msidiff option — that's what starts <diff-options>.
• the first argument that does not start with - — that's what ends them.

and the defaults, because defaults are everything:

• -Nup for contents
• -U0 for others
• -r, which is always passed. always. it's not optional, it's not up for debate, it's just there. periodt 💀

👑 AUTHORS 👑

msidiff was written by Ville Skyttä for Red Hat, Inc. 🫶

this manual page was adapted from the program usage information by Stephen Kitt <skitt@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others). it was last modified for msidiff version 0.93.

and that's the whole page, bestie, you ate it 💖 this was msitools, dated December 21, 2014, and yes I know that's ancient but the knowledge is timeless. go compare some packages. slay 🌈✨