Using 'diff' (or anything else) to get cha

Question

I'd like to use 'diff' to get a both line difference between and character difference. For example, consider:

File 1

abcde
abc
abcccd

File 2

abcde
ab
abccc

Using diff -u I get:

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 abcde
-abc
-abcccd
\ No newline at end of file
+ab
+abccc
\ No newline at end of file

However, it only shows me that were changes in these lines. What I'd like to see is something like:

@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 abcde
-ab<ins>c</ins>
-abccc<ins>d</ins>
\ No newline at end of file
+ab
+abccc
\ No newline at end of file

You get my drift.

Now, I know I can use other engines to mark/check the difference on a specific line. But I'd rather use one tool that does all of it.

Answer 1

cmp -l file1 file2 | wc

Worked well for me. The leftmost number of the result indicates the number of characters that differ.