This page present various criteria that can be matched to determine if folder items status, based on metadata information if possible, then by comparing file contents.
Ellié Computing Merge provides 3 preset configurations:
You can also set the criteria as you wish, and use the "Custom" configuration.
Different file sizes mean dfferent files
Equal file sizes mean equal files (dangerous)
Use the file sizes as an indication whether the file has changed or not.
"Equal file sizes
mean equal files" should be used only for files which
continuously grow (for example log files)
Different dates mean different files
Equal dates mean equal files
Use the file dates as an indication whether the file has changed or not. If you check the file dates, you can specify more options about files and timestamp. You can also restrict the file date equality criterium is the file sizes are equal if you consider that files with the same timestamp and sizes have not be modified.
Compensate file system precision loss
The date known as the 'modification date' of each file is
stored by the file system. Each file system uses some
convention, for example a number of seconds since some
particular date. However for the many file systems, many
conventions were chosen. NTFS was built with high precision
(100 nanoseconds precision), while FAT was built with 2-second
only precision. Most Unix systems are precise only up to the
second. Archivers as well have their own precision.
It means that whereas copying a file from place to another or
simply archiving a folder should not change the files dates, it
does in fact. The "compensate precision loss" option changes
somewhat the comparison test so that two dates are considered
equal if they are distant from less than 2 seconds (as this is
the least precise format in use).
NB: if checked, this setting applies whichever timestamp
comparison method is chosen
Timestamp comparison |
Timestamp difference |
|
Exact file dates |
The dates should match exactly |
Ignored |
Fixed difference | Allow file timestamps to have a difference corresponding to +/- the value specified in the timestamp difference control. |
Enter here the time difference in minutes you
allow on file last-modification dates. You can choose 30 or 60 as these values correspond to both timezones and DST situations.
|
Multiple difference | Allow file timestamps to have a difference corresponding to +/- several times the value specified in the timestamp difference control. |
Checksums
Check the checksum algorithm the program can use if
available on the local computer.
These checkboxes are useful mainly for binary comparisons and
for comparison of files with respect to archived
versions.
NB: these checkboxes are ignored at this time and will be used
when SCM plugins and archive format plugins will become
available.
Allow comparisons of files content in background
All pending file contents comparisons can be processed as a background task, so that most of the comparisons will be finished when you navigate on items.
Compare files and folders names case-sensitively
You can force folder items name to be associated case-sensitively or not. This option can be used when comparing files shared between computers where the system case sensitiveness is not the same.
See also