When comparing Kompare vs GNU Diffutils (diff), the Slant community recommends GNU Diffutils (diff) for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux diff tools?” GNU Diffutils (diff) is ranked 10th while Kompare is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose GNU Diffutils (diff) is:
Great for creating patch files, using with other *nix utilities (for example, colordiff). Does not require a GUI.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Can create patch files
Kompare can create a patch file which lists the differences between two files. Patch files created this way are also compatible with the patch files created by the CLI diff utility.
Pro Supports comparing directories
Kompare can compare both files and directories.
Pro Configurable hotkeys
Because it's a KDE app, all the hotkeys are configurable
Pro Command Line Interface makes it easy to use for people who work a lot in the terminal
Great for creating patch files, using with other *nix utilities (for example, colordiff). Does not require a GUI.
Pro Creates patches
These patches can be used to apply the differences to the same source file at a different storage location (different folder, different machine).
Pro Multiple formats
The difference can be output in formats known as normal, unified, ed, rcs, and side-by-side.
Pro Compares entiry directory trees
Two directory trees can be compared file by file recursively. All differences are output concisely.