Compare two directory trees.

diff <(cd dir1 && find | sort) <(cd dir2 && find | sort)
This uses Bash's "process substitution" feature to compare (using diff) the output of two different process pipelines.

35
By: mbirk
2009-05-21 04:44:29

2 Alternatives + Submit Alt

What Others Think

Very nice! Thanks!
DaveQB · 885 weeks and 6 days ago
Hi, take a look to diff man page : diff -a -q -r dir1 dir2
sputnick · 884 weeks ago
My command only compares the file file *names* -- not the contents of the file (like your "diff" command does).
mbirk · 860 weeks and 5 days ago
Very nice, thanks. Here's a possible improvement (shorter to type): diff <(find dir1 | sort) <(find dir2 | sort)
dserodio · 709 weeks ago
Nevermind, my "improvement" is broken :)
dserodio · 709 weeks ago
@dserodio your command works fine if you use a full path for your directories
linuxrawkstar · 558 weeks ago
@linuxrawkstar No, in that case find will print the full path and diff will report every line as not matching. The point of using relative directories and the cd command is for diff to filter out the common (relative) paths.
mbirk · 558 weeks ago

What do you think?

Any thoughts on this command? Does it work on your machine? Can you do the same thing with only 14 characters?

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