Compare folder contents for identical name and quantity of files

Hi, I manage a image/symbol set for, which is a collection of 18,000 svg images both in colour and black&white versions.

These images are stored in a set of folders and subfolders e.g:

C:\my image set\graphics\2021\image.svg (black and white)
C:\my image set\graphics_co\2021\image.svg (colour)

One of my tasks is to make sure there are corresponding images in both the colour and b&w sets. These svg images may have different dates and will have different sizes, so I'm not site I can use syncronize.

I am assesing Directory Opus as an alternative to explorer. Is there a way to compare two folders/directories of subfolders to check that there are identically named files in both locations (e.g. C:\my image set\graphics and C:\my image set\graphics_co)?

Thanks for yout time

If you have the two folders open side-by-side, you can use one of the commands under Edit > Select Other to highlight the files that are in one side but not the other (and similar), based on names only.

Those only do one side at a time, but you can add or modify the commands so that they do both sides at once:

Select SOURCETODEST=notin DESELECTNOMATCH
Select DESTTOSOURCE=notin DESELECTNOMATCH

That would give you this kind of result:

With so many files, you might want to hide the ones that are in both sides, so you only see the list of problem files:

You can get that with this:

Select DESTTOSOURCE=notin DESELECTNOMATCH
Select SOURCETODEST=notin DESELECTNOMATCH HIDEUNSEL=files
Select NOPATTERN HIDEUNSEL=files

A second button to could then be used to reveal the hidden files and return to normal (which you'd need to do before running the test again, for example):

Select NOPATTERN SHOWHIDDEN 
Set SOURCE=toggle
Select NOPATTERN SHOWHIDDEN
Set SOURCE=toggle

(You could make a toolbar button where left-click hides files in both sides, and right-click reveals everything again, to save space.)

You could also use scripting to generate a list of all files that are missing in another sibling folder, which would let you test multiple image sets at once. That would be a bit more complicated, but not too difficult if it's needed.

Thanks, thats really helpful

I'd need to try setting it up to also look in all child/sibling folders.
I have one root colour folder and one root black&white, each containing a tree of 175 folders/subfolders that should match.

Do you have a definitive list of the files that should exist in all folders? Or does that need to be generated on the fly by listing every folder first and then checking each folder again to see if it misses any files in any of the other folders?

Both can be done, but the approaches would be quite different for each.

The set gets added to fairly frequently, so it woud be hard to keep up a definitive list all all the files, and doing this woudl introduce human error, so it woudl be safer to generate the list each time.

the top two main folders "graphics_co" and "graphics" are always the same.

When I run this in a button, "the ones that are in both sides are not hidden." I just have selected files on both sides. It seems that "Select NOPATTERN HIDEUNSEL=files" is not working. Any ideas? Thanks

Running 12.30.3

The middle of the three buttons seems to work here.

Please posts some examples of what you see before and after, and tell us what you expected instead.

As I said, I just have selected files on both sides. It seems that "Select NOPATTERN HIDEUNSEL=files" the last line of the middle of the three buttons is not working. The unselected files are NOT hidden. I should see ONLY the selected files - the files that are unique to each side. Any ideas? Thanks.

Your status bar shows you have turned on "Show Everything" mode on both sides, so no filtering will have any effect.

Thanks for your time. I don't know what was going on before. I hit the button and Everything was visible. It works perfectly now and, so far as I know, I changed nothing. ...days like that.