Show only differences in report output

[swaino]

Hi,
My report looks something like:

File: file1

File: file2

File: file3
<differences shown>

File: file4 etc...

How can I prevent the report from showing file1, file2, file4 when they are the same. Our builds have 1000s of files and I only want to show the changes.

The script file looks like so:
# This is a DIFF report for use between archived builds

load %1 %2
expand all
select all

compare binary

file-report layout:side-by-side options:display-context,line-numbers output-to:"compare-report.html" output-options:html-color

[Aaron]

Hello,

Do not use the Select All command. Instead select only the different files. By default, these will be files with different timestamps/filesize. You can set a different criteria using the criteria command before the load command if you need to change this.

select all.diff.files all.newer.files

More detailed reference material can be found in the Help file under Scripting Reference.

[swaino]

Select all.diff.files creates empty report

Hi,
I've tried your suggestion with no success.

My script is as follows:

load %1 %2
expand all

select all.diff.files
log verbose projectlog.txt

compare binary

# OUTPUT file-report
file-report layout:side-by-side title:"Build comparison report" options:display-context,line-numbers output-to:"file-diff-report.html" output-options:html-color

Now my report is empty. If I take out select all.diff.files and replace with select.all, I get all the files listed that are the same and the differences. I need to generate a report with just the differences only. Can you help?

[swaino]

Actually, I've just figured it out:

load %1 %2
criteria binary
expand all
select all.diff.files

This seems to work. Not sure why using Criteria with Select, instead of Select and Compare works differently. Bit confused about the syntax/ordering of things?!?

[Aaron]

Hello,

The ordering is a series of chronological steps that you can take in the graphical interface as well. Each line mirrors an action that could be taken if using the program interactively.

For example, your previous script would
load two folders (default criteria of timestamp and size)
expand all folders
select all.diff(size).files
compare binary (which would update comparison status of the selection, but any files of diff size would also be diff binary)
run report on those files
*This assumes your current defaults are set to Timestamp and Size. If not, different results would occur.

Your new script looks good. I would recommend a couple of extra tweaks to the newer script
log logfile.txt
criteria binary
load folders
expand all
select all.diff.files

This way, you can have a log that starts logging at the very beginning (otherwise, it only begins logging from the moment it is declared). Setting the criteria before loading means you do not have to compare twice (first timestamp/size, then binary).