Diff outputs "binary files <file1> <file2> differ" but not the usual detail output I would like to compare two files - "orienv" and "currenv", using the command `diff`. The way I had created the two files was as follow: 1. Createing the "currenv" file $cat /proc/1/environ >> currenv $cat /pcoc/279/environ >> currenv $cat /proc/295/environ >> currenv //295 is the pid of the current console 2. Creating the orienv file $printenv > orienv Then I called `diff` as follow diff -u orienv currenv and got the following output _Binary files orienv and currenv differ_ I was expecting a normal `diff` output with the flag `-u` (e.g. output in which it shows the differences in _hunks_ , indicating which file has which information that the other does not. What went wrong?

/proc/*/environ are not text files. use strings:


strings /proc/{1,279,295}/environ >> currenv
env > orienv
diff -u orienv currenv