Can use BeyondCompare to diff two zip files (the zip file contain text files)?

[greenstone90]

Can Beyond Compare (or another utility if not) allow me to take two zip files and diff their contents...and output the diff into a resulting .zip file (or directory where I could zip them)?

Here' my scenario:

*A very large 300MB "distribution" that I have to upload to my web server daily to "unpack" into our website.

*99% of the files do not change each day (of that 300MB), but each day, I do not know which those "changed 1%" of files are, so I need to upload/unzip them all.

I would like a utility that can:
Input a "master" zip file and a "new" zip file and create a zip of those files that have changed. This would be so that I could upload only that "changed diff" file to my web server and unzip it ontop of the existing distribution.

Do you know the best way to do this?

Thanks!

[Aaron]

Hello,

Using the graphical interface, you can open your zips as base folders and set the Folder Compare session: Session menu -> Session Setting -> Handling tab to always treat them as folders. This will expand you zips contents and they will be viewable. Then configure your Session Setting -> Comparison tab to also run a timestamp and size, or rules-based content, comparison (depending on what you need to compare).

Finally, set the display filters to only show differences, select them, and use the CopyTo command to copy into a new folder or zip file.

You can make this an automated solution as well by using Beyond Compare specific script, but I recommend doing it using the graphical interface initially until you are more comfortable with the application.

You can test all of this with our fully featured trial, available for download here:
http://www.scootersoftware.com/download.php

Does this explanation help? Let us know if you have any questions.