CODEWITHSUNDEEP
powershellscriptingdirectory
Grant Junno
Grant Junno

Reputation: 33

Compare different versions of the same directory (by date modified)

This is a multi-part question. I can fill in details once I get to a working prototype.

Situation: Due to a comedy of errors, I have three copies of a very large directory, each copy has some new files/versions of files that are unique. I would like to combine these, keeping the newest version of every file.

Breakdown of things I don't know: How to compare, recursively, directories to one another (probably going to do two at a time; 1 vs 2 = 1+2, then 1+2 vs 3 = 1+2+3). Step crucial to this, how to use the path/filename of a file in directory 1 to first see if it can be found in directory 2, then, if found, use date modified to determine whether to make a copy from 1 or 2 to the new combined directory.

I think with these 3 pieces of information (recursively compare files b/t two directories, by path, and by date modified), I can piece together how to script this. While I can look up these bits separately, it's going to be tough to convince myself this process was done correctly and I'd like to have a little help with the actual assessment/moving step so I have less worry that I've overlooked some small but crucial detail.

Will post the script when I have it put together, along with any caveats about my confidence in it.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 215

Answers (1)

henrycarteruk
henrycarteruk

Reputation: 13227

Don't waste time writing a script when robocopy is built for file copying and has enough options to cover pretty much any situation...

By default it will only copy a file if the source and destination have different time stamps or different file sizes.

Using /XO will exclude older files that differ, so you will only end up with the newest files in destination.

/E includes subfolders inc empty ones, change to /S to not include empty.

robocopy C:\source1 C:\destination /E /XO
robocopy C:\source2 C:\destination /E /XO
[etc]

Upvotes: 2

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