File::DirCompare(3) Perl module to compare two directories using

SYNOPSIS


use File::DirCompare;
# Simple diff -r --brief replacement
use File::Basename;
File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, sub {
my ($a, $b) = @_;
if (! $b) {
printf "Only in %s: %s\n", dirname($a), basename($a);
} elsif (! $a) {
printf "Only in %s: %s\n", dirname($b), basename($b);
} else {
print "Files $a and $b differ\n";
}
});
# Version-control like Deleted/Added/Modified listing
my (@listing, @modified); # use closure to collect results
File::DirCompare->compare('old_tree', 'new_tree', sub {
my ($a, $b) = @_;
if (! $b) {
push @listing, "D $a";
} elsif (! $a) {
push @listing, "A $b";
} else {
if (-f $a && -f $b) {
push @listing, "M $b";
push @modified, $b;
} else {
# One file, one directory - treat as delete + add
push @listing, "D $a";
push @listing, "A $b";
}
}
});

DESCRIPTION

File::DirCompare is a perl module to compare two directories using a callback, invoked for all files that are 'different' between the two directories, and for any files that exist only in one or other directory ('unique' files).

File::DirCompare has a single public compare() method, with the following signature: 

  File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, $sub, $opts);

The first three arguments are required - $dir1 and $dir2 are paths to the two directories to be compared, and $sub is the subroutine reference called for all unique or different files. $opts is an optional hashref of options - see OPTIONS below.

The provided subroutine is called for all unique files, and for every pair of 'different' files encountered, with the following signature: 

  $sub->($file1, $file2)

where $file1 and $file2 are the paths to the two files. For 'unique' files i.e. where a file exists in only one directory, the subroutine is called with the other argument 'undef' i.e. for: 

  $sub->($file1, undef)
  $sub->(undef, $file2)

the first indicates $file1 exists only in the first directory given ($dir1), and the second indicates $file2 exists only in the second directory given ($dir2).

OPTIONS

The following optional arguments are supported, passed in using a hash reference after the three required arguments to compare() e.g. 

  File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, $sub, {
    cmp             => $cmp_sub,
    ignore_cmp      => 1,
    ignore_unique   => 1,
    matches         => $matches_sub,
  });
cmp
By default, two files are regarded as different if their contents do not match (tested with File::Compare::compare). That default behaviour can be overridden by providing a 'cmp' subroutine to do the file comparison, returning zero if the two files are equal, and non-zero if not.

E.g. to compare using modification times instead of file contents: 

  File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, $sub, { 
    cmp => sub { -M $_[0] <=> -M $_[1] },
  });
ignore_cmp
If you want to see all corresponding files, not just 'different' ones, set the 'ignore_cmp' flag to tell File::DirCompare to skip its file comparison checks i.e. 

  File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, $sub, 
    { ignore_cmp => 1 });
ignore_unique
If you want to ignore files that only exist in one of the two directories, set the 'ignore_unique' flag i.e. 

  File::DirCompare->compare($dir1, $dir2, $sub, 
    { ignore_unique => 1 });
matches
Subroutine to be called for file pairs that match, with the following signature: 

  $sub->($file1, $file2)

These pairs are ordinarily ignored (unless "ignore_cmp" is set).

AUTHOR AND CREDITS

Gavin Carr <[email protected]>

Thanks to Robin Barker for a bug report and fix for glob problems with whitespace.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright 2006-2012 by Gavin Carr <[email protected]>.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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