14

Does there exist a tool that compare Directory tree (Files. sub dirs) and show you waht is missing. I have an upload too which I'm coding and would like to see if it does not mess with structure.

Nothing big just show me how does directory X compare with Y

To clarify more here is an example

The tree

Dir1+
     +Subdir1
     +sudir2
        +File1
        +File2

and the tree

Dir1+
     +Subdir1
     +sudir2
        +File1
        +File2

are the same but tree

Dir1+
     +Subdir1
     +sudir2
        +File1
        +File2

and tree

Dir1+
     +Subdir1
     +sudir2
        +File1
        +File3

Should show me that File2 is missing and File3 is added.

Does such a tool exists?

3 Answers 3

12

Meld is a very good graphical diff tool (and more):

meld dir1 dir2 &

enter image description here

3
  • I will give it a try. Hope it does all I have posted above! Jun 19, 2013 at 11:21
  • @StefanoMtangoo yes it does and it is a part of the standard repository so can be installed just like sudo apt install meld
    – jave.web
    Feb 2, 2021 at 17:04
  • be aware of RAM though, for comparing 2 bigger directory trees (around 10000 files vs 6000files) (real user data, nothing funky), it ate almost 20GBs of RAM x)
    – jave.web
    Feb 2, 2021 at 19:33
10

diff can compare directory trees, too.

diff <dir1> <dir2>

Or if you don't want to see the files content differences:

diff -q <dir1> <dir2>

Some graphical tools available in Ubuntu repos: dirdiff, fldiff, kdiff3, meld, mgdiff.

2
  • 4
    For a tree comparison, you need to go recursive. You need the -r option or it will be wrong. Could be a disaster too.
    – H2ONaCl
    Dec 29, 2015 at 20:40
  • It has nice readable params diff --brief --recursive dir/one dir/two too if you like to understand what you are doing, brief: "report only when files differ"
    – jave.web
    Feb 2, 2021 at 17:09
5

A less technical approach would be to use gui synchronization software such as FreeFileSync (Visual folder comparison and synchronization)

There is a ppa at launchpad:

Put these lines in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freefilesync/ffs
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install freefilesync

I've successfully been using this tool for a few years now to back-up and/or sync folders on Windows and Ubuntu.

See this screenshot I set-up displaying what it would do in your situation:

enter image description here

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