large disk space usage and temp folder

[aldass]

When comparing two different FTP folders a large amount of disk space is consumed on drive C: (its also where BC is installed). Assuming BC3 is pulling files down to a local temp folder and then doing a compare, is there any way I can set the location of this temp folder to something other than drive C:\ ?

Version 3.3.4 (build 14431)

[Aaron]

Hello,

BC3 will pull down temporary files if you are running a content comparison scan (binary, rules-based).

If your FTP server supports the xCRC command, BC3 can perform a crc comparison without downloading the files first.

Using a date/timestamp comparison would not download the files for comparison.

The temp files go to your Windows temp folder (%temp%). If you change where windows stores temporary files (where the variable %temp% points), then we will use the new location. To see where your current location is, type %temp% into My Computer/Windows Explorer's location bar.

The disk space should only be used while the file is still in queue for comparison, and is removed immediately after it is compared. If one FTP is significantly faster than the other, it may "get" its files first and then wait while the other ftp delivers its files for comparison, but we do not just download everything and then compare it.

[bigfoot]

You mentioned the temp folder setting in Windows, how about in Unix, how do we set the temp folder to another location ?

We are comparing very large files (multiple users comparing big files at the same time), the respond time of BC3 was very slow and we keep getting "stream write error" in many occasions. and we have to go to temp folder to delete files to release disk space.

Other then increasing the disk space alocated for the temp folder, could you suggest other ways on how we could further optimise BC3 so that we could be more productive comparing large files?

Thanks in advance

[Aaron]

We use the Unix temp location of /tmp. If you mount this location to somewhere other than C:\, then we should point over to it when it is used.

Between your two FTP servers, is one substantially faster than the other? One possible reason for this behavior is we try to download all the files we can and compare them, then delete the temp information. If one FTP is faster, we will end up grabbing more files from that one.

One test for this would be to cut your current comparison into smaller parts, either by using subdirectories as base folders, or by using File Name filters to exclude sets of files. That way, the smaller compare will at most download the entire of one side, compare against it as it can as the slow side downloads, and clear out space as it can.