eggdrop.ch

Sometimes I have two versions of a directory stored on my computer. When cleaning up, it is handy to be able to see which files are in common and which files differ. To do that, I wrote a small Python script that compares two directories. The script also shows duplicate files in each of the directories. MD5 checksums are used to determine if files are equal – no file name comparison is used. Also, the script goes recursively into subdirectories.

Download script (compare.py)

The usage is simple:

Usage: compare.py [-d] dir1 dir2
Compares files in two directories, based on their MD5 checksum.
-d: Debug. Prints the MD5 checksum of every file to stderr.

Sample usage and output:

% python compare.py dir1 dir2
Duplicate files
============================================================

dir1/file 2.pdf
dir1/file.pdf

Common files
============================================================

dir1/image.png
dir2/image.png

dir1/test.pdf
dir2/subdir/foobar.pdf

Files only in dir1
============================================================

dir1/hello.jpg

Files only in dir2
============================================================

dir2/something.jpg
dir2/video.mov