When users enter configuration mode, the following message is seen:  'The configuration has been changed but not committed' . However, when the  'show| compare' command is run, the output reveals that no changes were made.

The following message is seen:

user@R1> configure 
Entering configuration mode
The configuration has been changed but not committed

[edit]
user@R1# show | compare 

[edit]
user@R1# 

This output seems contradictory because it says that there are changes, but the comparison shows that there are no changes. This can be due to several reasons. One sequence of events that can lead to this is when a user makes a change and then manually reverts it. For example:

user@R1> configure 
Entering configuration mode

user@R1# set interfaces lo0 unit 0 description test 

[edit]
user@R1# delete interfaces lo0 unit 0 description       

[edit]
user@R1# show | compare 

[edit]
user@R1# 

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user@R1# exit 
The configuration has been changed but not committed
Exit with uncommitted changes? [yes,no] (yes) yes 

Exiting configuration mode

user@R1> configure 
Entering configuration mode
The configuration has been changed but not committed

[edit]
user@R1# show | compare 

In this case, the software knows that a change has been made. Two changes were made in this case: addition of a description to the loopback interface and then removal of the description from the loopback interface. This is the reason that the software shows that a change has been made. In this case, these changes cancel each other out, resulting in no net change to the configuration. That is why the " show | compare" output shows no changes.

The solution is to roll back the configuration. This action will cause the software to delete the current shared candidate configuration database and make a new one from a copy of the current committed configuration. This lets the software know that no changes have been made:

user@R1> configure 
Entering configuration mode
The configuration has been changed but not committed

[edit]
user@R1# show | compare 

[edit]
user@R1# rollback 
load complete

[edit]
user@R1# exit 
Exiting configuration mode

user@R1> configure 
Entering configuration mode

Now the CLI no longer warns that the configuration has been changed.

2021-08-10: Redundant show | compare output removed; other minor changes made