[Macpartners] disk or folder comparison software

[Mark J. Pearrow]

Hi David,

A quick and dirty way to compare directories is to use the diff command.

diff -rq src_dir dest_dir

will tell you if files/folders exist in in only one of the two.

Trying to compare two directories and manually fix them can be like putting toothpaste back in the tube. Sometimes it's quicker to just use a synchronization tool that can cope with errors and report them. Ditto, Unison and Carbon Copy Cloner are good for this.

mjp




On Feb 27, 2010, at 3:43 PM, David Schloerb wrote:

> Hi all,
> 
> Does anyone know of an application that I can use to compare the 
> contents of two disks (or at least two folders) to verify that all of 
> the contents are the same? I am running Mac OS 10.4.11.
> 
> The reason I am looking for this is that I tried to back up my data 
> (about 60 GB) from one hard disk to another by dragging and dropping 
> all of the folders. Unfortunately, some of the files did not get 
> copied. I tried to clean it up manually--very tedious--and in the end 
> I am still not sure that my back up is complete. In the past I have 
> just started over and copied only a few folders at a time, but this 
> is also very tedious and the truth is I am still not sure that 
> everything gets copied.
> 
> I'm open to suggestions.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> David
> _______________________________________________
> Macpartners mailing list
> Macpartners at mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/macpartners