Definition
Plain language
Checking that two pieces of text are identical character by character, with no allowance for meaning.
As stated in the literature
Exact string equality over raw bytes; it detects textual edits but not semantic changes introduced elsewhere, such as redefinitions that alter how unchanged text is interpreted.
Also called: byte comparison, byte for byte
Why it matters: It is a cheap and airtight way to prove text was not edited, but it says nothing about whether the meaning of that text has been changed by something elsewhere in the file.
For example, two copies of a sentence pass a byte-for-byte comparison only if every letter, space and punctuation mark lines up exactly — one extra space and they count as different.
Heard on the show
“Second, it compared the protected theorem text byte for byte to confirm that the agents hadn’t edited it.”Episode 260 — One Line of Lean Faked 34 Proofs, and 99 Agents Copied It