comparing .exe and .dll files

[kpcbc]

Can Beyond Compare be configured to ignore the compiled timestamps in .exe and .dll files?

[Chris]

Re: comparing .exe and .dll files

If you want to compare the contents of the .exe and .dll files, it will compare the compiled in timestamps.

If you compare the version information using version criteria in Session|Comparison Control, or using the Version Viewer plug-in, then it shouldn't show the timestamp information as different.

[kpcbc]

Re: comparing .exe and .dll files

Thanks for the reply. If I use the rules-based comparison option when comparing .exe or .dll files, is that explicitly looking at the compiled timestamp and deciding (if appropriate) that there are only unimportant differences if the compiled timestamp is the only difference between two files?

One other question I have is on the symbol used to denote that files only have unimportant differences. On the screen display, it looks like two tildes stacked (close to a congruence symbol) but in the printed report I get the ">>" characters. Is this only due to a lack of a printable character to represent the "stacked tildes"?

Thanks.

[Chris]

Re: comparing .exe and .dll files

It depends on how you have the plug-in configured.

First, select Tools|Options and go to the Rules section. Make sure you have a rule for *.exe and *.dll file extensions that uses the Version Viewer. When you install the Version Viewer plug-in, it should create a rule named "VerViewer" that associates with exe and dll files.

Next open an interactive comparison of two exe or dll files in the Version Viewer. By default it will compare all of the version fields, so you'll need to Tools|Edit Rules in the Version Viewer, then uncheck "Date Modified" to ignore the date.

Once you associate the version viewer with the file extensions and set the rules to ignore "Data Modified", a rules-based comparison in the Folder Viewer will compare all version information except the date.

The Folder Comparison Report doesn't support indicating "unimportant differences". If View|Ignore Unimportant Differences is turned on in the Folder Viewer, unimportant differences will show as a match in reports. If it is turned off, unimportant differences will show as a difference in reports.

[ncr100]

For BeyondCompare 4.x on macOS is there a similar plugin I could use?

I'm building .NET DLLs using Mono and would like to diff the DLLs.

(I already added *.aar for my Android Java development under Archive types, nice.)

Is there a plugin system for BC 4.x?

[Aaron]

Hello,

No, our Version Compare session type relies on several Windows functions and that's why we can't port it to MacOS at this time. Your license for BC4 supports multiplatform, so you could install the Windows version of BC4 in bootcamp or another Windows PC and compare your files (over a network share for example).

We have the external conversions provided by the File Formats (a new Text format) or to launch external processes with an External format. Both are in the Beyond Compare menu -> File Formats dialog.

[ncr100]

Hello,

No, our Version Compare session type relies on several Windows functions and that's why we can't port it to MacOS at this time. Your license for BC4 supports multiplatform, so you could install the Windows version of BC4 in bootcamp or another Windows PC and compare your files (over a network share for example).

We have the external conversions provided by the File Formats (a new Text format) or to launch external processes with an External format. Both are in the Beyond Compare menu -> File Formats dialog.

Cool - this works, thanks Aaron!