Simple directory diff tool

Initially developed to compare versions of ALOT (Mass Effect mod) and facilitate upgrading by reapplying only modified textures instead of everything.

Can be used either to compare two versions of a same directory (-d) or compare and copy differences to a separate folder (default behavior).

Installation

There are two versions you can download, both with the same functionality:

• Windows executable (dir_diff.exe) (built using PyInstaller)
• Python script (dir_diff.py) (Python2 only, Python3 not supported)

If you're not sure which one to choose, download dir_diff.exe from the latest release.

If you already have Python installed on your machine, I suggest you use the script version since it is way smaller in size. Simply grab the ZIP archive of the latest release.

Usage

Solution 1

• Open the directory where you stored dir_diff.exe
• Open a command prompt (Shift+RightClick with the mouse on empty space and Open command window here)
• Run dir_diff.exe

Solution 2

• Open a command prompt (Windows+R and run cmd.exe)
• Navigate to the directory where you stored dir_diff.exe using cd Path\To\Download\Directory
• Run dir_diff.exe

After that...

A help message will provide you the syntax and optional arguments of the tool. In the basic use case, you only need to provide the paths to the directories you want to compare, as in the example below.

Example

> dir_diff.exe Path\To\4.2 Path\To\4.3.1
Summary of changes from 4.2 to 4.3.1:
Unchanged: 2112
Modified:  1
Added:     0
Removed:   1
  
  
Copying changes (2 files) to diff-4.2-to-4.3.1
Done copying!
  
  
I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel!

In this example, a folder diff-4.2-to-4.3.1 is created, where you will find all the differences between the two versions, neatly arranged by folder depending on type (modified, added, or removed).