How to Check That Two Folders Are the Same in Linux

how do I check that two folders are the same in linux

If you were using scp, you could probably have used rsync.

rsync won't transfer files that are already up to date, so you can use it to verify a copy is current by simply running rsync again.

If you were doing something like this on the old host:

scp -r from/my/dir newhost:/to/new/dir

Then you could do something like

rsync -a --progress from/my/dir newhost:/to/new/dir

The '-a' is short for 'archive' which does a recursive copy and preserves permissions, ownerships etc. Check the man page for more info, as it can do a lot of clever things.

Given two directory trees, how can I find out which files differ by content?

Try:

diff --brief --recursive dir1/ dir2/

Or alternatively, with the short flags -qr:

diff -qr dir1/ dir2/

If you also want to see differences for files that may not exist in either directory:

diff --brief --recursive --new-file dir1/ dir2/  # with long options
diff -qrN dir1/ dir2/                            # with short flag aliases

Compare two folders which have many files inside contents

To get summary of new/missing files, and which files differ:

diff -arq folder1 folder2

a treats all files as text, r recursively searched subdirectories, q reports 'briefly', only when files differ

compare contents of two directories on remote server using unix

You can use rsync with the -n flag to find out if the files are in sync, without actually doing a sync.

For example, from server1:

rsync -n -avrc /abc/home/sample1/* server2:/abc/home/sample2/

This will print the names of all files (recursive, with the -r flag) that differ between server1:/abc/home/sample1/ and server2:/abc/home/sample2/

rsync used parameters explanation

-n, --dry-run - perform a trial run with no changes made

-a, --archive - archive mode; equals -rlptgoD (no -H,-A,-X)

-v, --verbose - increase verbosity

-r, --recursive - recurse into directories

-c, --checksum - skip based on checksum, not mod-time & size

Diff files present in two different directories

You can use the diff command for that:

diff -bur folder1/ folder2/

This will output a recursive diff that ignore spaces, with a unified context:

b flag means ignoring whitespace
u flag means a unified context (3 lines before and after)
r flag means recursive

given two directory trees how to find which files are the same?

Well i found the answer myself. I had tried it before, but I thought it did not work.

diff -srq dir1/ dir2/ | grep identical

What -srq means? From diff --help :

-s  --report-identical-files  Report when two files are the same.
-r  --recursive  Recursively compare any subdirectories found.
-q  --brief  Output only whether files differ.