[OSX-Users] Re: reconciling duplicated files/directories/backups

[Hugh Glaser]

Hi Marcus,
If you are telling less how to use diff, i think you may be instructing your grandma how to such eggs :-)

I think (hope) that Les is looking for something that will have a look around (maybe on a few disks) and report back where it finds some directory structures (with possibly several thousand files) are the same.
If he finds something or builds it I would be a grateful recipient.


On 14 Dec 2011, at 13:02, Marcus Cobden wrote:

> There's always the Unix diff command
> 
> diff -r dir1 dir2
> 
> I prefer to add in the -u option, and also view a colorised version.
> Also I'm pretty sure you can get it to only tell you that files differ, and not how.
> 
> Finally, the timestamps on the files might be useful, so if you move/copy them around, take care to preserve them.
> 
> Marcus
> 
> On 14 Dec 2011, at 12:08, Les A Carr wrote:
> 
>> I am writing some simple tools to help me reconcile multiple copies of files/directories from various attempts to back up or duplicate information across machines for safekeeping.
>> 
>> Before I go too far down this road (shell scripts and md5 checksums!) does anyone know of any software that already does this?
>> --
>> Les
> 
> 

-- 
Hugh Glaser,  
              Web and Internet Science
              Electronics and Computer Science,
              University of Southampton,
              Southampton SO17 1BJ
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