diff --git a/pyglance/glance/compare.py b/pyglance/glance/compare.py
index 91cfaac534322e8f38a3287f2616b9f5b2d79db0..7567dec27b08ace0703fb5d679ceb6e1bc960123 100644
--- a/pyglance/glance/compare.py
+++ b/pyglance/glance/compare.py
@@ -1189,7 +1189,10 @@ glance inspectStats A.hdf
             try :
                 lal = list(io.open(fn)())
                 lal.sort()
-                print fn + ': ' + ('\n  ' + ' '*len(fn)).join(lal)
+                if options.parsable_output:
+                    print "".join(map(lambda x: fn+"\t"+x+"\n", lal))
+                else:
+                    print fn + ': ' + ('\n  ' + ' '*len(fn)).join(lal)
             except KeyError :
                 LOG.warn('Unable to open / process file selection: ' + fn)
                 problems += 1
diff --git a/pyglance/glance/config_organizer.py b/pyglance/glance/config_organizer.py
index 482117c567ad0af943a114fbe7dadb808ccb099e..9780e3e4c1c5626b4ac85cdd107acb56a686d172 100644
--- a/pyglance/glance/config_organizer.py
+++ b/pyglance/glance/config_organizer.py
@@ -476,6 +476,9 @@ def set_up_command_line_options (parser) :
     parser.add_option('-f', '--fork', dest=DO_MAKE_FORKS_KEY,
                       action="store_true", default=False, help="start multiple processes to create images in parallel")
 
+    parser.add_option('--parsable', dest=PARSABLE_OUTPUT_KEY,
+                      action="store_true", default=False, help="format output to be programmatically parsed. 'info' only")
+
 def convert_options_to_dict (options) :
     """
     convert the command line options structure created in compare.py into a dictionary of values
@@ -535,4 +538,4 @@ if __name__=='__main__':
     
     LOG.info("Currently no tests are configured for this module.")
     
-    sys.exit(0)
\ No newline at end of file
+    sys.exit(0)
diff --git a/pyglance/glance/constants.py b/pyglance/glance/constants.py
index abdc8cb39652c72a893f4efa66c237b992f66d2f..0e2ad0591a46ce88e1cd8387345b680334805db4 100644
--- a/pyglance/glance/constants.py
+++ b/pyglance/glance/constants.py
@@ -24,6 +24,7 @@ DO_IMAGES_ONLY_ON_FAIL_KEY = 'only_plot_on_fail'
 USE_NO_LON_OR_LAT_VARS_KEY = 'noLonLatVars'
 SHORT_CIRCUIT_DIFFS_KEY    = 'short_circuit_diffs'
 USE_CUSTOM_PROJ_KEY        = 'use_custom_projection'
+PARSABLE_OUTPUT_KEY        = 'parsable_output'
 
 # constants related to storing information from the run