Test your knowledge: filecmp comparisons

Review

1. What does shallow=True mean for filecmp.cmp() when the stat signatures match?

   Matching file type, size, and modification time can be accepted as equality when shallow=True.
2. Which option requests an actual content comparison?

   Use shallow=False when the content itself must be compared.
3. What does cmpfiles() return?

   cmpfiles() returns the three lists in match, mismatch, error order.
4. A name in cmpfiles() is missing from one of the directories. Which result group should contain it?

   Missing or unreadable inputs are reported as errors, not ordinary content mismatches.
5. Which dircmp attribute lists common files that compare as different?

   diff_files reports files shared by name but considered different.
6. How do you access the comparison object for a common child directory called data?

   Each child comparison can expose its own differences and further subdirectories.
7. Why might clear_cache() be useful immediately after modifying a file?

   When the available stat signature does not appear to change, a cached result may not reflect a rapid rewrite.
8. Which argument lets dircmp exclude known generated names from directory listings?

   Use ignore for entries that should not participate in the directory comparison.
9. You need a human-readable line-by-line difference between two text strings. Which tool is designed for that?

   difflib provides text sequence comparison tools; filecmp is focused on file and directory comparison.