gifdiff

Check whether two GIF images display identically

TLDR

Compare two GIF files (exit status 0 = same, 1 = different)

$ gifdiff [file1.gif] [file2.gif]

Brief mode — exit status only, no output

$ gifdiff -q [file1.gif] [file2.gif]

Ignore frame-redraw differences (frames that render identically but differ in redraw info)

$ gifdiff -w [file1.gif] [file2.gif]

Use in a shell script

$ gifdiff -q [file1.gif] [file2.gif] && echo "identical"

SYNOPSIS

gifdiff [-q | --brief] [-w | --ignore-redraw] gif1 gif2

gifdiff compares two GIF image files and determines whether they display identically when rendered. Unlike a byte-wise comparison, it accounts for semantically irrelevant encoding differences (for example, different frame disposal methods that produce the same visible output).gifdiff is part of the gifsicle toolkit and is primarily useful for regression testing of GIF generators and for confirming that two differently encoded files produce the same animation.

PARAMETERS

-q, --brief

Produce no output; only return an exit status (0 if images display identically, 1 otherwise).

-w, --ignore-redraw

Ignore differences that only affect how frames are redrawn. Two animations that render identically but encode redraws differently are still treated as equal.

-h, --help

Print usage information and exit.

-v, --version

Print the gifdiff version and exit.

CAVEATS

gifdiff does not produce a visual diff image. For pixel-level visualization of differences use a tool like compare(1) from ImageMagick.