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IDProjectCategoryView StatusLast Update
0000235VisualDifferFolders differpublic2014-07-10 17:12
Reporterfgrau Assigned Toadmin  
PrioritynormalSeverityfeatureReproducibilityalways
Status closedResolutionnot fixable 
Product Version1.6.0 
Summary0000235: Compare folder contents - see only missing files (without paying attention to file names)
DescriptionCurrently I'm transferring a lot of photos to my NAS and during that upload process the file names are changed. Unfortunately the process sometimes fails, leaving some photos still untransferred. Now I would like to compare the two folders and see which photos still need to be transferred.

Currently VisualDiffer shows me ALL files as missing, because the filenames changed.

Is it possible to compare the two folders in a way that I'm only shown the really missing files?
Additional InformationIn the attachement I did a screenshot of the current state: Although the files are identical they are shown as "missing" in the other folder.
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

fgrau

2014-05-11 10:27

reporter  

admin

2014-05-11 10:36

administrator   ~0000489

Last edited: 2014-05-11 10:37

VD uses the name to align files, this is the only way to eliminate ambiguity (suppose we use the file size to align, inside a folder you can have two files with same size so how we can determine the alignment?)

If "old name" and "new name" files use a pattern then VD can align using a file name pattern expression.

Have you a pattern for old an new names?
Take a look here http://visualdiffer.github.io/alignRules.html for some example

fgrau

2014-05-11 11:31

reporter   ~0000490

Unfortunately in my case there are no patterns for filenames.

I'm a bit confused right now! :D

What I thought: VisualDiffers compares the content of two folders. This comparison is done via different methods. I have two folders with identical files, but different names. I therefore choose "Compare file sizes" to see which files are in both folders.

I expected VisualDiffer to align identical files based on their file size, regardless of their name. And if one file is not present in the other folder it is aligned next to a blank space, because there is nothing it could be aligned with.

Do I misunderstand VisualDiffer's use case completely?

admin

2014-05-11 11:35

administrator   ~0000491

Compare file size work with aligned files so if a.txt is present on both side then compare the file sizes for both a.txt

Comparison and aligment are two different things, alignment is always done using name, comparison works on two aligned file (with same name or alignment pattern)

fgrau

2014-05-11 11:42

reporter   ~0000492

Oh, I see.

Wouldn't it be possible to turn this around? Compare files first and then align them based on the results of the comparison? Just asking, I have absolutely no idea! :)

admin

2014-05-11 11:45

administrator   ~0000493

Last edited: 2014-05-11 11:50

I think is impossible, suppose you have the scenario shown below

Left                Right
c.txt 10 bytes      aaaa.txt 10 bytes
b.txt 20 bytes      bbbb.txt 10 bytes


How can c.txt can be aligned using size?
Both right aaaa.txt and bbbb.txt are 10 bytes, it's impossible to choose based on file size

fgrau

2014-05-11 18:04

reporter   ~0000494

Yes, that's true.

My first idea would be to indicate, that this one file could have two possible matches and the user has to check manually. And ask the user to use an additional criterium like timestamp or content to better identify two matching files. Or maybe you could also compare the checksum of files as another way to match them.

I don't know, are there other ways to reliably identify if two files are the same?

admin

2014-05-11 18:40

administrator   ~0000495

I'm sorry but no plan to support a similar feature, I suspect no diffing app implements a similar alignment feature

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
2014-05-11 10:27 fgrau New Issue
2014-05-11 10:27 fgrau Status new => assigned
2014-05-11 10:27 fgrau Assigned To => admin
2014-05-11 10:27 fgrau File Added: Bildschirmfoto 2014-05-11 um 09.47.53.png
2014-05-11 10:36 admin Note Added: 0000489
2014-05-11 10:37 admin Note Edited: 0000489
2014-05-11 11:31 fgrau Note Added: 0000490
2014-05-11 11:35 admin Note Added: 0000491
2014-05-11 11:42 fgrau Note Added: 0000492
2014-05-11 11:45 admin Note Added: 0000493
2014-05-11 11:50 admin Note Edited: 0000493
2014-05-11 11:50 admin Note Edited: 0000493
2014-05-11 18:04 fgrau Note Added: 0000494
2014-05-11 18:40 admin Note Added: 0000495
2014-07-10 17:12 admin Status assigned => closed
2014-07-10 17:12 admin Resolution open => not fixable