How can i compare the contents of two folders ?

I've done some searching round now and found Tidy up! It's shareware at $30 which I'm evaluating at the moment but it's looking good, it seems to do all the network stuff I need it to.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/systemdiskutilities/tidyup.html

Why go through all this trouble when OS X already has a program capable of comparing 2 folders (diff)

I really wish I knew the answer to this. I work between two macs, a G5 and MacBook Pro when I'm on the go. Each time I move from one to the other I have to copy all my files to the computer I'm going to work on, so I end up with the same files being duplicated. It's not a problem if it's not much data but in my case the it can be to 30GB, mostly graphics files, photoshop, motion, final cut pro, etc.

There's has got to be a way automator can make a comparison between two folders to sort out what's changed and what's remained the same. It would be nice also if this feature could be done globally on the hard disk using spotlight's technology to stop files being duplicated in places you didn't even know about and taking up valuable disk space. I'm not sure how this could be done.

Any bright ideas Apple?

Have you considered downloading different folders, ones you can label? Also, some of them are really nice. This would save much time. Also, create new folders for different projects and label them with Finder. You can store them in the left side of the Finder. Making room by un-clicking folders such as "All Documents," All Imagines," "Today," This Week," personally I find these useless. But I think you should create labeled folders to dtore your information and make it easier to find what you seek. It will also un-clutter your desktop.

Ray

I don't think organizing folders is the issue here. It's the contents of the folders or files where on folder might have subtly different files from the other, eg: a modified date on the same file name. The solution I think we are looking for is one similar to the sync function in .mac which compares data from two origins and gives you the option to choose the correct file. You can't seem to be able to do this, especially if the files are sitting on separate HD's

Check out SyncTwoFolders (freeware) at

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/30727

There are separate downloads for ppc and intel.

It's main purpose is to actually sync two folders, but it can be run in a "simulation" mode where it just compares two folder contents and shows their differences without actually doing anything. (Choose the "Reciprocal" and "Simulation" options).

thanks, I gave SyncTwoFolders a try but no joy. It issues a log report but both folders remain the same in or out of simulation mode. I'm also not sure it's sophisticated enough deal with the contents of sub folders in the event a file might have been moved.

If diff gives too much info (i.e it will tell you what's only in folder1 and what's only in folder2), and you're only interested in what's in folder1 that's not in folder2, pipe to grep.

diff -rq folder1 folder2 | grep folder1

SynchTwoFolders does work for me using a single computer, but I now see a a VersionTracker feedback comment that it does not work over a network. It might work via a firewire connection to the second computer booted in Target Disk mode, if this isn't too much of a hassle.
There are a number of similar programs that come up if you search for *synch folder* in VersionTracker, but I am not familiar with their capabilities.

If you have Toast you can use its compare function. On the menu bar, go to Utilities and then Compare.

You are offered the option to compare folders or even volumes. This utility is in Version 8 and 7 but I'm not sure about earlier.

Dave

The best file/folder comparison tool I have used is FileMerge, which is included in the Xcode package (the developer tools, an optional install on the Leopard DVD).

Another is the "Search > Find Differences..." feature in TextWrangler, a free text editor from BareBones software.

Still, the easiest way to answer the question:

how can i compare the contents of two folders and find out which files are in one but not in the other??

is: diff -rq folder1 folder2 | grep folder1

There are gui alternatives, but the diff command in terminal will do what you want:
http://www.macworld.com/article/132219/2008/02/termfoldercomp.html

All I can think of is that you copy and paste the contents of BOTH folders into a third folder...then track through and make sure you have double of everything...

Best, ::m