winmerge command line compare folders and copy differences

(You can set up defined comparisons (files or folders, etc), and then automatically have things merged or updated or just compared, based on the rules you set.) I started using it just to do folder comparison, but it actually does a great job of also doing simple backups and syncing. It’s now available for OSX, Linux, and PC. I’ve been using BeyondCompare by Scooter Software ( ) for a number of years. If you have another way that you compare folders in Mac or Windows, please leave a comment and let us know how you do it. The latter allows you to do comparisons using a GUI. I did find a discussion thread with a way to compare folders using the Windows command line, but from my research it seems like many people use the open source tool called WinMerge. DS_Store ~/Desktop/Docs ~/Docs > diff.txt open diff.txt

To do that, change the command to something like this: diff -rq -x. If you have a lot of changes to view, you can redirect the results to a text file and check later at your leisure.

DS_Store ~/Desktop/Docs ~/DocsĪs you can see, it displays the result in a nice easy to read format. DS_Store files that Mac OS X throws everywhere, so this was my command. I wanted a way to exclude those annoying. In its simplest form, you type the command like this: diff -rq firstfolder secondfolder I found this helpful Macworld article that shows how to compare two folders using the Terminal in Mac OS X. I am in the process of moving my paperless documents to a new location, and am taking that opportunity to clean up my folder structure a little bit.Īfter getting everything set up in the new location, I wanted a way of comparing the contents to the old directory tree to see if there are any glaring omissions/red flags.

Winmerge command line compare folders and copy differences