Comments on: How to Find Difference Between Two Directories Using Diff and Meld Tools

By: Johann

Johann — Sun, 04 Aug 2024 23:00:58 +0000

In reply to Brian.

Your tool is closed-source payware. I don’t mind the payware part, but closed source? NOPE!

By: Ravi Saive

Ravi Saive — Mon, 20 May 2024 06:20:52 +0000

In reply to Bob. @Bob, You can limit comparison to file names and sizes by combining find and diff:

find dir1 -type f -exec stat --format='%s %n' {} + | sort > dir1_files.txt
find dir2 -type f -exec stat --format='%s %n' {} + | sort > dir2_files.txt
diff -q dir1_files.txt dir2_files.txt

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 18 May 2024 07:37:34 +0000

This is not correct; the command `diff -q` is taking excessively long. This is not just comparing two directories; it is comparing the content of all files within the directories.

By: Jos

Jos — Fri, 26 Jan 2024 09:01:01 +0000

In reply to Ravi Saive.

rsync has an extra plus: the directories to be compared do not necessarily have to be on the same system. Comparison can be done between different computers.

By: Ravi Saive

Ravi Saive — Wed, 26 Jul 2023 06:26:19 +0000

In reply to Luis Gutiérrez López. @Luis, Yes, that's correct. The rsync --dry-run option allows you to run a trial run of rsync without actually transferring any files. This is a great way to compare two directories and see which files are different. The syntax for the rsync --dry-run command is as follows:

# rsync --dry-run [options] source_directory destination_directory

For example, to compare the contents of the /home/user/source directory to the /home/user/destination directory, you would use the following command:

# rsync --dry-run /home/user/source /home/user/destination