murrayE
Level 1 (47 points)
Mac OS X

Q: Is there a utility to compare folders visually?

Is there some Lion-compatible Finder-like utility that will do the following?

 

  1. Display the list of files from two different folders, in parallel columns.
  2. Preferably display, too, such other attributes as you select (kind, date modified, size).
  3. indicate visually the differences between the two folders: --
    (a) which files in the first folder are not in the second, and vice versa;
    (b) which files are in both folders but are newer in the first folder than in the second folder, and vice versa?

 

Obviously if a utility can list the contents of two folders next to one another, you could go through the two lists file-by-file. But that's not what I'm asking about.

 

Please note that I am not asking about comparing and showing the differences between two files. Thus so far as I can tell, the following apps do not do what I'm asking about:

  • Araxis Merge
  • Kaleidoscope
  • Path Finder

 

Path Finder, at least, can display two folders in parallel columns; but so far as I can tell, there's no way to get it to indicate what I ask in #3, above.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.3), 3.4GHz Corei7, 16GB, SSD + 2T HD

Posted on Apr 6, 2012 5:36 PM

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murrayE

Q: Is there a utility to compare folders visually?

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  • by Richard E. Cooke,

    Richard E. Cooke Richard E. Cooke Jul 20, 2012 7:25 AM in response to murrayE
    Level 2 (220 points)
    Jul 20, 2012 7:25 AM in response to murrayE

    Another most excellent Windows compare I have used since Windows 95 - or was it 3.1?

     

    Anyway its been around a looooong time.  And it extremely fast.

     

    What I like about it is you can tell it to compare folders by date/time stamp or compare file contents.  Date/time is blazinglyl fast.  But if your not sure (DST can muck up date stamps for example), you can make it double-check actuall contents.  Very handy.

     

    "Directory Toolkit"

    http://www.funduc.com/directory_toolkit.htm

     

    mailto:support@funduc.com

  • by danegeld,Helpful

    danegeld danegeld Jul 20, 2012 7:29 AM in response to murrayE
    Level 2 (185 points)
    Jul 20, 2012 7:29 AM in response to murrayE

    I went on a similar hunt a couple of years ago. I tried the one in XCode, didn't like it, used Delta Walker for a while but found it fiddly to set up and work with, and then found VisualDiffer. It works flawlessly and does what you want. You can find it in the App Store.

  • by Richard E. Cooke,

    Richard E. Cooke Richard E. Cooke Jul 20, 2012 7:42 AM in response to danegeld
    Level 2 (220 points)
    Jul 20, 2012 7:42 AM in response to danegeld

    Very cool.  And only $4!

     

    I bought it to test it out.  First look, I think it might be a winner!

     

    Direct link to Visual Differ In the store

     

    Behind the scenes, he is using the FreeBSD/Darwin DIFF command - which is an excellent choice.  This allows him to focus on GUI layout and features, letting the Unix command do the heavy lifting.  Aside from befing fast, the DIFF command is extremely well tested.  If you go into Terminal and enter "man diff" you can see the details.  At the end of the man-pages it says this version has been around since 2002.

  • by JayChicago,

    JayChicago JayChicago Oct 4, 2012 8:22 AM in response to murrayE
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 8:22 AM in response to murrayE

    For murrayE, anything new since July? Do you have a good working answer to your initial question?

  • by murrayE,

    murrayE murrayE Oct 4, 2012 12:12 PM in response to JayChicago
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 4, 2012 12:12 PM in response to JayChicago

    JayChicago wrote:

     

    For murrayE, anything new since July? Do you have a good working answer to your initial question?

    VisualDiffer isn't bad. But it still lacks useful features of the Windows program "FileSync" and is more difficult to use.

  • by Tifighter,

    Tifighter Tifighter Dec 3, 2012 8:34 PM in response to murrayE
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Dec 3, 2012 8:34 PM in response to murrayE

    You might like to try DeltaWalker.

     

    The Kaleidoscope 2.0 Beta now offers a FolderScope feature as well.

     

    Araxis Merge also looks to be feature rich.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Dec 3, 2012 10:35 PM in response to murrayE
    Level 9 (51,281 points)
    Desktops
    Dec 3, 2012 10:35 PM in response to murrayE

    Take a look at DupeGuru, it may do what you want,

  • by murrayE,

    murrayE murrayE Dec 4, 2012 7:55 AM in response to Tifighter
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Dec 4, 2012 7:55 AM in response to Tifighter

    Tifighter wrote:

     

    You might like to try DeltaWalker.

     

    The Kaleidoscope 2.0 Beta now offers a FolderScope feature as well.

     

    Araxis Merge also looks to be feature rich.

    Thanks for the suggestions. Unfortunatley, none of the three apps meets my needs. The functionality I need is what I have not yet found in any Mac app -- the functionality I used daily under Windows in Fileware's FileSync.

     

    Kaleidoscope 2.0 Beta is yet another incomplete, second-rate tool: so far as I can tell, it does not allow you readily to check off which individual files you want to copy from one compared folder to another (on both sides, possibly, going in two directions); nor does it seem to compare the files inside subfolders of the folders you are comparing (i.e., it doesn't allow you to expand sub-folders, or sub-sub-folders, etc.).

     

    DeltaWalker does at least let you view sub-folders, etc. But like Kaleidoscope, it doesn't seem to let you mark individual files or folders on both sides for a single copy operation.

     

    I previously evaluated Araxis Merge and found it also lacking.

  • by merjave618,

    merjave618 merjave618 Feb 3, 2013 8:10 PM in response to murrayE
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2013 8:10 PM in response to murrayE

    +1 on Visual Differ.  I was looking for a "file compare" app and this one far surpassed my expectations.  And, for $4, it was well worth it!!

  • by murrayE,

    murrayE murrayE Feb 4, 2013 5:59 AM in response to merjave618
    Level 1 (47 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 4, 2013 5:59 AM in response to merjave618

    merjave618 wrote:

     

    +1 on Visual Differ.  I was looking for a "file compare" app and this one far surpassed my expectations.  And, for $4, it was well worth it!!

    Still, compared with FileSync (for Windows), Visual Differ is quite inferior. For example, just try to copy some files from source to target and others from target to source at the same time; so far as I can see, you cannot.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 4, 2013 9:18 AM in response to murrayE
    Level 9 (51,281 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 4, 2013 9:18 AM in response to murrayE

    Did you ever try DupeGuru

  • by merjave618,

    merjave618 merjave618 Feb 4, 2013 7:19 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2013 7:19 PM in response to Csound1

    I like DupeGuru, especially for cleaning up unwanted duplicate files in the same folder.  But I was originally looking for just a visual comarison app that compares two different folders, and Visual Differ was just that!  I think Murray may need an app that has all these features, and then some.  Keep us posted, murrayE.

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Feb 4, 2013 8:03 PM in response to merjave618
    Level 9 (51,281 points)
    Desktops
    Feb 4, 2013 8:03 PM in response to merjave618

    I've used DupeGuru for some time but I'll check out Visual Differ now, thanks.

  • by swedish_photographer,

    swedish_photographer swedish_photographer Feb 8, 2013 4:16 PM in response to murrayE
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 8, 2013 4:16 PM in response to murrayE

    Did you ever consider File Buddy from SkyTag?

     

    http://www.skytag.com/filebuddy/en/index.html

     

    Best,

     

    Pål

  • by SecretSeraphim,

    SecretSeraphim SecretSeraphim Feb 13, 2013 9:58 AM in response to danegeld
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 13, 2013 9:58 AM in response to danegeld

    VisualDiffer is now on sale for $1.99.

     

    I hope this'll help my issue too.   Thanks for the thread!

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