NAME¶
forensics-colorize - show differences between files using color graphics
SYNOPSIS¶
filecompare [-b size[bkmgpe]] [-Vh] FILE1 FILE2
colorize [-h|-V] [-w <num>] [-ovd] FILES
DESCRIPTION¶
forensics-
colorize is a set of tools to visually compare large files, as
filesystem images, creating graphics of them. It is intuitive because the
produced graphics provide a quick and perfect sense about the percentage of
changes between two files.
Comparing large textual files using a simple diff can produce a very big result
in lines, causing confusion. On the other hand, diff is improper to compare
binary files.
forensics-
colorize uses two command line programs:
filecompare
and
colorize. The
filecompare command is used to create a
special and auxiliary input file for
colorize. The
colorize
command will generate an intuitive graphic that will make easier to perceive
the level of changes between the files. In other words, you can use the
filecompare command to generate a graphic to be analyzed by
colorize command.
OPTIONS FOR FILECOMPARE¶
- -b
- Set block size with optional suffix b, k, m, g, p, or e. Note that the
program will output at least one complete block. Make sure that you have
enough disk space!
- -t
- Use transitional colors instead of default red or green.
- -V
- Display version number and exit.
- -h
- Display this help message.
OPTIONS FOR COLORIZE¶
- -d
- Change direction data flows. Default is down or right.
- -o
- Change image orientation. Default is vertical.
- -v
- Verbose mode.
- -w
- Set output image width, defaults to 100.
- -V
- Display version number and exit.
- -h
- Display this help message and exit.
EXAMPLES¶
To generate an initial graphic between 'test1' and 'test2' files to be analyzed
by
colorize:
$ filecompare test1 test2 > test.fc
To analyze the result:
$ colorize test.fc
The last command will generate the test.fc.bmp file. You can open it using a
trivial image viewer, as sxiv or similar. If using default parameters for the
both commands (
filecompare and
colorize), unchanged parts will
be shown as green and changed parts will be colorized with red.
To get larger or smaller final graphics, use the
-b option for the
'
filecompare' command. As an example, the following command will
produce a result greater than the default:
$ filecompare -b 64 test1 test2 > test.fc
NOTE¶
In most cases, the default block size is the same of the logical disk sector
value (now a days, 512 bytes). Try 'fdisk
-l' or 'gdisk
-l
/dev/<disk>' to find the right value.
AUTHOR¶
The forensics-
colorize was written by Jesse Kornblum
<research@jessekornblum.com>.
This manual page was written by Joao Eriberto Mota Filho
<eriberto@debian.org> for the Debian project (but may be used by
others).