Directory structure compare

[Tolaria]

I'm working on deploying code changes and automating the deploy / backup using beyond compare.

However the developers have a habit of when packaging their zip files for deploy to not zip up the full path.

When we deploy we unzip everything to a temp directory then use beyond compare to deploy the changes.

What I'd like to do is to generate a folder comparison report that ignores files so that the directories can be verified before deploying.

I've already got a script that will do a full compare using this forum Chris K was very helpful in this post:

http://www.scootersoftware.com/vbull...ead.php?t=2806
I can't seem to figure out how to ignore files though, some directories can contain several thousand files, so it would be significantly faster to be able to ignore them.

Thanks in advance.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The filter to hide all files would be:

filter "-*.*"
load c:\location1 c:\location2
expand all
folder-report layout:side-by-side options:display-mismatches output-to:C:\report.txt

You would also need to have "Compare Files and Folders" enabled in the graphical interface (instead of Always Show Folders or Only Compare or Ignore Folder Structure) in the toolbar or View menu.

How does that work for you?

[Tolaria]

This didn't seem to work, could not find the option you were refering to, and below is the output.

FOLDER COMPARISON
Produced: 8/26/2010 3:28:10 PM

Mode: Just Mismatches
Filters: -*.*
Left base folder: c:\tempdeploy
Right base folder: z:\
Name Size Modified Name Size Modified
--------------------------------------

[Aaron]

Oh, sorry about that, Tolaria. Those are directions for BC3.

For BC2, the option you need to enable in the graphical interface is Always Show Folders. This will show every folder. BC2 defaults to the BC3 mode known as "Only Compare Files", which will hide any folders found to be empty. Since -*.* makes all folders empty, it would hide them all from view.

I would suggest trying this out in the graphical interface first. The GUI gives a bit more feedback, so you would see things such as every folder disappearing occur. Then use the Actions menu -> Folder Comparison Report to test out the different report styles and see which one works best for you.