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Directory Difference in Web Browser
Another quick and dirty solution

Since my FileSync Project is still a long way to being where I want it to be and is in a state that makes it annoying to use, I decided to throw together a script that essentially emulates the primary functions of it for what I need. I find it a bit annoying that I’ve never been able to find another good project that does exactly what I want for quick syncing of files over networks :-\. I used to think rsync would be a good solution for it but it’s very... quirky and unstable in certain ways. Not as flexible as I would like. Alas.

Anywho, this PHP script takes 2 file lists and gives you back their differences in a directory tree view. Each file has a data string after it used to tell if the files are different. The data string can be anything you want, but will usually probably be a timestamp or data checksum. The tree view lets you hide files/directories depending on whether each item is only on one side, different, or the same. An example is as follows (List1, List2):

Dir1.txt filesData String (Timestamps)
Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
Diff.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
LeftOnly.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
PartialDir/Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
PartialDir/Diff.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
PartialDir/LeftOnly.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
SameDir/Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
LeftOnlyDir/Left.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
LeftOnlyDir/Left2.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
DiffDir/Diff.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
Dir2.txt filesData String (Timestamps)
Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
Diff.txt1111-11-11 11:11:11
RightOnly.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
PartialDir/Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
PartialDir/Diff.txt1111-11-11 11:11:11
PartialDir/RightOnly.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
SameDir/Same.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
RightOnlyDir/Right.txt9999-99-99 99:99:99
  
DiffDir/Diff.txt1111-11-11 11:11:11


Example Output:
Legend:
  • Differences:
    • No differences detected
    • File is different, or directory contains differences
    • File is only found on left side, when this happens to a directory, it is only counted as 1 difference
    • File is only found on right side, when this happens to a directory, it is only counted as 1 difference
  • Type:
    • This is a directory with sub items. After the directory name, it lists as info the number of differences over the total number of sub items
    • This is a file. If both sides contain the file but are different, it lists as info the different strings
  • Info about the file/directory listed in between parenthesis.
Options:
Left Side: ./Dir1.txt
Right Side: ./Dir2.txt
Total Differences: 9
Total Items: 13
  • DiffDir (1/1)
    • Diff.txt (9999-99-99 99:99:99 :: 1111-11-11 11:11:11)
  • LeftOnlyDir (1/2)
    • Left.txt
    • Left2.txt
  • PartialDir (3/4)
    • Diff.txt (9999-99-99 99:99:99 :: 1111-11-11 11:11:11)
    • LeftOnly.txt
    • RightOnly.txt
    • Same.txt
  • RightOnlyDir (1/1)
    • Right.txt
  • SameDir (0/1)
    • Same.txt
  • Diff.txt (9999-99-99 99:99:99 :: 1111-11-11 11:11:11)
  • LeftOnly.txt
  • RightOnly.txt
  • Same.txt

Some example bash commands used to create file lists:
  • Output all files and their timestamps to “Dir1.txt”: find -type f -printf '%P\t%T+\n' > Dir1.txt
  • Output all files and their md5sums to “Dir1.txt”: find -type f -print0 | xargs -0 md5sum | perl -pe 's/^(.*?) (.*)$/$2\t$1/g' > Dir1.txt
256th Page
Nothing to see here
This post marks my 256th page of content on this website, yay, go me :-). That’s it... nothing else to report...