Home / ubuntu / Questions / 248632
Accepted
To Do
Asked: 2013-01-29 05:26:00 +0800 CST

Run diff command to compare all files in directory

  • 772

I have two folders having in theory an identical folder structure and the same files.

I wish to check for differences between the two copies in the two folders. I can run diff folder1/file1 folder2/file1 one by one but this is time consuming.

Is there a way to identify which are the files which differ in the two folders? If not is there at least a way to compare the contents of a folder with the contents of the second folder?

batch

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    You've missed the -r (recursive) option to diff:

    diff -r folder1 folder2

    For a concise output also add the -q flag; it will only output that the files differ, but doesn't output the actual differences. See the manpage (man 1 diff) for more information and options.

    • 11

  2. If you have a lot of files and subfolders, you'll probably want to use meld (apt-get install meld), which is a visual diff and merge tool.

    • 6