Can it compare file permissions?

No, the diff command does not compare file permissions. It is primarily used to compare the contents of files line by line. If you want to compare file permissions, you can use the ls -l command to list the permissions of files in each directory and then manually compare the outputs or use other tools like stat for a more detailed comparison.

For example, you can use:

ls -l ~/directory1
ls -l ~/directory2

This will show you the permissions for files in both directories, allowing you to compare them visually.