Looking for a Specific type of directory campare utility

[Enjay]

For some time now, I have been using a little util called ThirdDir (it can be found here http://rva.mtg.sk/ near the bottom of the page )

It's a file compare and backup utility, but it has a specific purpose that I haven't seen in other utilities. Specifically, it compares directory 1 with directory 2 and if it finds any files that are only in directory 1, it copies them to a third directory.

So, at the end of the process, directory 1 is still intact, directory 2 is still intact and directory 3 has copies of the files that are only in directory 1 and not directory 2 and nothing else.

Typical scenario:
● directory 1 is a modded game (where the mods do not change any of the original game files),
● directory 2 is a clean backup of the unmodded game.
● I use ThirdDir to copy only the files from directory 1 that do not exist in directory 2 into directory 3.
● If I need to revert directory 1 back to being unmodded (e.g. for updating or whatever) I can delete all the files in directory 1 and use the backup in directory 2 to recreate an unmodded game in directory 1.
● I can then update the game in directory 1.
● Once the update is done, I can then restore all my mods simply by copying the contents of directory 3 into the updated game directory.

I have other uses for ThirdDir too, that's just an example.

Anyway, other than being a bit old and quirky, ThirdDir still works but... well, it's a bit old and clunky.

So, I was just wondering if anyone knew of a tool or method that offers the same ability but in a more modern way?

[drfrag]

Diffmerge can compare folders (i know the sourcegear version). And hi (i usually write "y wenas" here xD).

[Professor Hastig]

That's something I've been looking for for a long time.
The workaround I tend to use was to make a copy of directory 1, then copy the files of directory 2 into it and then compare the copy with directory 1 and delete all files that are the same. It can be really annoying and time consuming when doing on a larger directory tree.
It really makes me wonder why nobody else came up with a tool like this one.

The UI is a real blast from the past, though. I can understand why you want something more modern...

[Enjay]

Thanks.

It looks like DiffMerge can report on the differences between two directories and highlight which files exist in one, but not the other (so far so good). However, I don't see any ability to perform the final step - to copy those files somewhere else. I don't know if it's not there or if I just missed it.

I already use FreeFileSync to compare directories and keep backups current. That provides a similar comparison ability to DiffMerge, (though less detailed/technical). Simply getting a list of files would allow manual copying of the ones that are different but the last time I used ThirdDir, I was comparing two directories with over 5000 files each in them, and there were over 600 files (in nested sub directories) that needed to be copied. So, a manual copying would be possible, but tedious. ThirdDir did it in a matter of seconds.

[drfrag]

Seems there are options to copy files in context menu.
https://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/we ... tmenu.html

[Enjay]

That still just looks like it is set up to copy things from one of the directories being compared to the other. I can't see anything that allows you to copy the different files to a totally new third directory.

[Enjay]

That's something I've been looking for for a long time.
The workaround I tend to use was to make a copy of directory 1, then copy the files of directory 2 into it and then compare the copy with directory 1 and delete all files that are the same. It can be really annoying and time consuming when doing on a larger directory tree.
It really makes me wonder why nobody else came up with a tool like this one.

The UI is a real blast from the past, though. I can understand why you want something more modern...

Sorry, I missed your post before. Yeah, the old, quirky, techy "blast from the past" interface is what makes me want something else. It's not that I can't use it; it's more that it screams "I'm old, may have bugs or problems and will likely stop working at some point in the not too distant future". That being said, it's functional right now, I'm not aware of any problems with it and it does what I want.