Use FileMerge to compare folder contents

Feb 17, '06 06:54:00AM

Contributed by: magir

The Apple DevTools includes an application named FileMerge to diff the contents of textfiles: FileMerge. If you drag two folders on the application icon, a different dialog appears which shows a merged column view of both directories. You can set the checkmarks (on the right) to filter the view, and FileMerge also provides actions to remove or add files to the "left" and "right" folder. Additional information is available in the help.

On a sidenote: Roxio's Toast also has the ability to compare disks and folders (this functionality has been there for ages), and it provides a color-coded output, where you can easily see which files have been changed, removed, or added. I hope Apple will add something similar to FileMerge in the future.

[robg adds: I had no idea this functionality was buried in FileMerge. Quite useful if you do a lot of transferring of folders between machines...]

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