Recursive diff?

[Ashley M. Kirchner]

    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing every 
single file in each one?

    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
within folders and files within them.

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  +--------------------------------------------------------------------
  Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:[e-mail]>   .   303.442.6410 x130
  IT Director / SysAdmin / Websmith             .     800.441.3873 x130
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[Martin Marques]

Ashley M. Kirchner escribió:
>  
>     What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing every 
>  single file in each one?
>  
>     Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
>  between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
>  within folders and files within them.
>   
diff -r doesn't help you?

[Todd Zullinger]

Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>  What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing
> every
>  single file in each one? 
Well, "best way" is very subjective. :)

I think you'll find "diff -uNr /path1 /path2" will work reasonably
well.

You can omit the -N and diff won't show you the full file contents for
files in one path but not in the other (you'll just see a line like
"file foo not in bar"). 

You may also want to use some of the options to suppress whitespace
differences from being displayed (-wbB is a common combination).

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
    -- Don Marquis

[Les Mikesell]

Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>  
>     What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing every 
>  single file in each one?
>  
>     Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
>  between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
>  within folders and files within them. 
Is that a trick question?

diff -r path1 path2

pipe to less or direct output to a file for later review.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell(a)gmail.com

[Karl Larsen]

Martin Marques wrote:
>  Ashley M. Kirchner escribió:
> >
> >    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing 
> > every single file in each one?
> >
> >    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
> > between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
> > within folders and files within them.
> >
>
>  diff -r doesn't help you?
>  
    I just read man diff and it does talk to comparing directories of 
files. And the -r tells it to do it recursive and that is like we us -r 
in other tools.




-- 

	Karl F. Larsen, AKA K5DI
	Linux User
	#450462   http://counter.li.org.

[Konstantin Svist]

Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>     What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing 
>  every single file in each one?
>
>     Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
>  between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
>  within folders and files within them.
>  
Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very 
easy-to decipher format :)

[offset]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 12:27:45PM -0700, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>  
>     What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing every 
>  single file in each one?
>  
>     Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
>  between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
>  within folders and files within them.
>  
>  -- 
>  W | It's not a bug - it's an undocumented feature.
>   +--------------------------------------------------------------------
>   Ashley M. Kirchner <mailto:[e-mail]> 
http://www.cpqlinux.com/patch.html
-- 
offset

[Marcelo Magno T. Sales]

Em Sex 30 Nov 2007, Konstantin Svist escreveu:
>  Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>  >    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing
>  > every single file in each one?
>  >
>  >    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made
>  > between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain
>  > folders within folders and files within them.
>
>  Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
>  It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very
>  easy-to decipher format :) 
Or Kompare, I like it too.

[]'s
Marcelo

[Konstantin Svist]

Marcelo Magno T. Sales wrote:
>  Em Sex 30 Nov 2007, Konstantin Svist escreveu:
>    
> > Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
> > It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very
> > easy-to decipher format :)
> >     
>
>  Or Kompare, I like it too.
>     

Just looked it up - not bad, but it doesn't allow you to edit/merge 
files. I guess it can be a nice default for "svn diff" :)
Oh, and kdiff3 can also do 3-way comparisons. I rarely use that feature, 
though...

[John Summerfield]

Konstantin Svist wrote:
>  Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
> >
> >    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing 
> > every single file in each one?
> >
> >    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
> > between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
> > within folders and files within them.
> >
>  
>  Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
>  It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very 
>  easy-to decipher format :)
>  
>   
is dat a rapper for diff3?


-- 

Cheers
John

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You cannot reply off-list:-)

[Martin Marques]

Konstantin Svist escribió:
>  Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
> >
> >    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing 
> > every single file in each one?
> >
> >    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
> > between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
> > within folders and files within them.
> >
>  
>  Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
>  It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very 
>  easy-to decipher format :) 
OK, if it's gonna be like that, I use colordiff so I get nice colorfull 
diffs. ;-)

[John Summerfield]

Konstantin Svist wrote:
>  Marcelo Magno T. Sales wrote:
> > Em Sex 30 Nov 2007, Konstantin Svist escreveu:
> >  
> >> Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
> >> It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very
> >> easy-to decipher format :)
> >>     
> >
> > Or Kompare, I like it too.
> >   
>  
>  
>  Just looked it up - not bad, but it doesn't allow you to edit/merge 
>  files. I guess it can be a nice default for "svn diff" :) 
Surely that's Patch you want. Use to have a cow[1] called Patch.

>  Oh, and kdiff3 can also do 3-way comparisons. I rarely use that
> feature, 
>  though...
>  
>   
[1] One of them big hairy critters that provide milk so other folk can 
confuse you by putting in bottles. Not an appendage to a ro filesystem.

-- 

Cheers
John

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You cannot reply off-list:-)

[Martin Marques]

Konstantin Svist escribió:
>  
>  
>  Just looked it up - not bad, but it doesn't allow you to edit/merge 
>  files. I guess it can be a nice default for "svn diff" :)
>  Oh, and kdiff3 can also do 3-way comparisons. I rarely use that feature, 
>  though... 
kdiff3 is the default merge tool for hg.

[Aaron Konstam]

On Fri, 2007-11-30 at 19:50 -0300, Martin Marques wrote:
>  Konstantin Svist escribió:
>  > Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>  >>
>  >>    What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing 
>  >> every single file in each one?
>  >>
>  >>    Basically we're trying to figure out what changes have been made 
>  >> between a backup folder and a current one.  They both contain folders 
>  >> within folders and files within them.
>  >>
>  > 
>  > Personally, I really like kdiff3 - it's a pretty nice UI for diff.
>  > It compares directories, too - and presents the differences in a very 
>  > easy-to decipher format :)
>  
>  OK, if it's gonna be like that, I use colordiff so I get nice colorfull 
>  diffs. ;-)
>   
Have you tried merge?
--
=======================================================================
A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it. -- Oscar
Wilde, "The Portrait of Mr. W.H."
=======================================================================
Aaron Konstam telephone: [phone] e-mail: akonstam(a)sbcglobal.net

[Dave Ihnat]

On Fri, Nov 30, 2007 at 12:27:45PM -0700, Ashley M. Kirchner wrote:
>     What's the best way to run diff against two folders, comparing
> every 
>  single file in each one? 
The best way was always 'dircmp'.  Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be a
part of the standard distributions, but you should be able to find a copy
in either 'C' or shell somewhere.

I'd write one, except I have a copy of the original AT&T System V
shellscript version (from a copy I bought lo these many years ago from
Dell for $1100...and that was a CHEAP Unix!), so I couldn't do it without
being 'contaminated'.

Cheers,
--
	Dave Ihnat
	President, DMINET Consulting, Inc.
	dihnat(a)dminet.com

[Martin Marques]

Aaron Konstam escribió:
>  Have you tried merge? 
Nop, I use kdiff3 for merging.

[Les Mikesell]

Dave Ihnat wrote:
>  
>  I'd write one, except I have a copy of the original AT&T System V
>  shellscript version (from a copy I bought lo these many years ago from
>  Dell for $1100...and that was a CHEAP Unix!), so I couldn't do it without
>  being 'contaminated'. 
And everyone today thinks Microsoft got the desktop monopoly with some 
kind of dirty tricks but really, no one could afford single-user unix. 
It is odd that Dell dropped that sysvr4 at exactly the time that 
Windows95 came out, though.  I found a fairly nasty bug and found that 
it was no longer a supported product.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell(a)gmail.com

[Ric Moore]

On Sat, 2007-12-01 at 11:58 -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
>  Dave Ihnat wrote:
>  > 
>  > I'd write one, except I have a copy of the original AT&T System V
>  > shellscript version (from a copy I bought lo these many years ago from
>  > Dell for $1100...and that was a CHEAP Unix!), so I couldn't do it without
>  > being 'contaminated'.
>  
>  And everyone today thinks Microsoft got the desktop monopoly with some 
>  kind of dirty tricks but really, no one could afford single-user unix. 
>  It is odd that Dell dropped that sysvr4 at exactly the time that 
>  Windows95 came out, though.  I found a fairly nasty bug and found that 
>  it was no longer a supported product. 
My Mom bought a computer several years ago when win98 was the newest
thing on the block. Her machine won't handle her Flik video cam, so I'm
sneaky sneaking Linux on her machine to do the job. I finally figured
out that the video-cam had to be switched on, prior to loading it into
the usb port. Else, my computer would reset to reboot. I don't think
she'll notice the difference. I'll report back when she gets her hands
on it. I just told her that I was going to "hot-rod" her computer for
her. 

Yeah, it's payback. <evil cackles!!> Ric

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