TopWare Tools

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ TopWare Tools / TOOLS.iso / tools / top1418 / zdiff.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1993-09-16 | 18.9 KB | 459 lines

ZDIFF v1.3 The Archive/Directory comparison Shareware program Copyright 1993, Christophe Dubourg Date : 16 September 1993 ---*--- Table of contents 1 ........................Purpose 2 ........................ Syntax 3 ...................... Features 4 .................. How it works 5 ........................ Limits 6 ....................... Remarks 7 .................... Disclaimer 8 ..... How to contact the author ---*--- 1. Purpose : ------------ ZDiff is a comparison utility program. You can compare a pair of archives, or a pair of directories, or an archive and a directory. (that's the new of this !) You obtain a sorted list of all the files, along with a status line, showing the differences, if any. ■ ZDIFF.EXE is the normal DOS version. ■ ZDIFFD.EXE is the DPMI hosted version. It permits a larger amount of files to be treated. (up to 16380) 2. Syntax : ----------- ZDIFF <New Archive/Directory> <Old Archive/Directory> or ZDIFF <New Archive/Directory> <Old Archive/Directory> [options] [wildcards] Note : To simplify the following, the archive or directory that is compared to an other archive or directory will be called a Set of files. There is a NEW set of files, and an OLD set of files. (to determine the one that is Newer and the one that is Older, for instance). The <New archive/directory> and <Old archive/directory> parameters are needed (not optional). The order in which you specify the New/Old pair is important. It will make the difference between a 'Deleted' file or 'Inserted' file, or a 'Newer' and 'Older', or 'Bigger' and 'Smaller'. (In fact, it will determine the output result) The NEW set of files must be specified first. --------------------------------------------- Then, you may specify wildcards if you need. a. Wildcards The wildcards may be used to restrict the files compared inside the directory or archive. (for both the new and old sets, because it would be unlogical to have two different wildcards). The DOS standard wildcards are allowed. b. Options The options may be specified anywhere on the command line, and are not case sensitive. The options are : /b : Batch output. Only the file names are output to standard output. You may re-use the list as input with an other program. /c : Country flag override. If the dates in the ZIP files are not well recognized, you may use this option to force the date format to use while reading ZIP files : /C0 - USA date format. (MM/DD/YY) /C1 - EUROPEAN date format. (DD/MM/YY) /C2 - JAPANESE date format. (YY/MM/DD) /d : Differences only. Once the two sets of files are compared, the output will only show the files that are different in the 2 sets. (ANY difference : date, size, crc, name...) By default, all the files of the two sets are displayed. /h : Help ! This display more help screens, and a copyright screen. /m : Matching files only. The output will only show the files that are BOTH in the NEW and the OLD set of files. Files that are only in the NEW set or only in the OLD set (i.e., Deleted or Inserted files) will not be shown. /n : No Path in names With this option, you can compare a directory tree with a single directory. Useful to compare a ZIP file that have a directory tree stored inside of it, and a directory that contains all the files without subdirectories. Example : to compare to directories, one containing the 'organized' procuct, and one containing the 'development' version, like : New directory : DEV\*.* Old? directory : CUT\DISK1\*.* CUT\DISK2\*.* CUT\DISK3\*.* etc... You can compare these 2 directories with the following command : ZDIFF /r /n DEV CUT /p : Pause. With this option, ZDiff will prompt you before reading each set of file. The purpose of this is essentially while using floppies. For example, if you need to compare two sets that are on two different floppies that have the same format, you'll have to insert one disk, read the files from it, and then the second disk. Maybe, you could compare 2 removable hard disks, or a hard disk and an archive, or whatever you want. /q : Quick scan. If a directory is involved in comparison, this permits to skip the CRC calculation on each file of this directory, in order to speed up the process. Of course, use this option with caution, since the comparison is made only with TimeStamp and Size ! (two files can have the same date and time of last modification, same size, and be binary different : using this option, they will be marked as 'Same'). However, if the timestamp or size is different, 'Differs' will be displayed. /r : Recurse directories. By default, the subdirectories are not searched, either in the archive or the directory file structure. (to save time). This switch allows the comparison of the full tree of directories. Note : if you don't specify the -r option, the filenames that contains a path in the archives are not treated at all. A warning is displayed if a path is found in an archive, and you have not used the -r option. /v : Verbose output. This option causes a status to be output at the end of comparison. This status report shows the number of files that are : - Identical - Different - Newer - Older - Bigger - Smaller - Inserted - Deleted It may give an idea of the amount of differences between the two sets, without having to analyze the whole output. /z : Zpecial messages. Troubleshooting mode option - display more information while running like Country code detected, date used, Zip version... It may help if something seems to go wrong (with date format detection, for example). Please note that using the DPMI version of ZDiff with the RTM DPMI server, the Country Code number will be 112, which is false. This is because the DOS function used is not supported in this DPMI host ; however this doesn't affect the DATE FORMAT detection. (See the /C option to override the Date format detection) 3. Features : ------------- Since this is a comparison program, you will probably want to know how it compares the two sets of files : The keys of comparison are : Name : If two names of the sets don't match, either one is new or one is deleted, depending on the order you specified for the comparison. if the -r option is specified, the full filename must match. Once two files are found in both the 2 sets, a more precise comparison occurs. The keys for comparison between two files that have the same name are : CRC : A 32 bit CRC calculation is made on the files to know if they are absolutely identical or not. Note : if one of the files is an archive of type LZH, LHA, ARC or ZOO, then a 16 bits calculation is done instead, to match the CRC that these archives use. If the Quick option is set, and one of the 2 sets is a directory, no CRC calculation occurs, and files are assumed binary identical. Date : To know which one is the oldest file, or the newest. Size : To know which one is the biggest file, or the smallest. 4. How it works --------------- To compare two directories, you won't need nothing but ZDIFF.EXE. But to compare two archives, or an archive and a directory, you'll need the correct unarchiver in your PATH, to access the archives you have specified. The program supports all the current archive formats that are commonly used and that I am aware of : ZIP, ARJ, LHA, LZH, PAK, ZOO, ARC. The needed unarchiver, for each extension is : *.ZIP PKUNZIP.EXE (v1.10 or v2.04) *.ARJ ARJ.EXE (v2.30) *.LHA \ *.LZH - LHA.EXE (v2.12) *.PAK / *.ZOO ZOO.EXE (v2.1) *.ARC PKUNPAK.EXE (v3.61) (each of these can be easily found on many BBS) Now, here how it works : The program first checks if the archive or directory that you specified exists. (to prevent an error after some precious seconds of calculation). At this points, it decides if a 32 bit or 16 bit calculation will occur (or no crc, if Quick mode is set). Then, it analyze the NEW set, and then the OLD set. Two choices, concerning each set of file : a. If it's an archive: The unarchiver is called, to obtain a list of each file in the archive, along with the date, crc, size, and so on. This list is saved in a temporary file. (Using the TEMP environment variable if available) Then, the temporary file is opened, and scanned for each file in it. Since all the informations are already calculated by the unarchiver, there's nothing to compute (the crc is already there). If this is NEW files, each file name is stored in memory, along with all the informations needed to compare later. If this is OLD files, a search is made in memory, to see if the file already exists in the NEW directory. If yes, the comparison occurs, and the status is updated accordingly. If not, the file information is simply stored. b. If it's a directory: The directory is scanned, and all the files are opened, to obtain the date, time, size, and a CRC calculation occurs. (except if the Quick mode is set). Each file entry is then treated like the archive file entry : if NEW, then the information is just stored. If OLD, the file is searched in memory, and then either added or updated in the list. After all the files have been read (the NEW set and the OLD set of files), the sorted list is sent to standard output. Since you can redirect standard output, you could use this facility to pipe the output to a finder program (FIND), or a viewer program (LIST), or any filter program of your choice. Here are some examples : 1. ZDIFF NEWARC.ZIP OLDARC.ARJ | more This display the output via DOS's more command. (if the archive contains sub-dirs, they are not included, since no -r parameter is there - instead, you'll obtain a warning while running ZDiff). 2. ZDIFF /r NEWARC.ZIP OLDDIR *.DOC | FIND "Newer" | LIST /s This display, via the LIST viewer, all the NEW files in NEWARC.ZIP, compared to OLDDIR directory. Subdirectories are scanned, too. Only the .DOC files are processed. 3. ZDIFF NEWZIP.ZIP . -r -q -c1 This output on screen the differences between the archive NEWZIP.ZIP and the current directory, and the subdirectories. A Quick scan (-q) of directories will be made (no CRC), so the comparison will be made on date, time and size only. The date format used by PKUNZIP on this machine (-c) is the EUROPEAN date format (DD/MM/YY). 4. ZDIFF -v . -r OLDARC.LHA /d /q -m This output on screen the differences between the current directory and the archive OLDARC.LHA. Subdirs are scanned also. A Verbose (-v) status is displayed at end of comparison. Only the differences are shown (/d), and no CRC is calculated. Only the matching files of the two sets (-m) are displayed. 5. Limits : ----------- ■ ZDIFF.EXE : All the files informations are stored in DOS memory. (no EMS) It permits between about 5500 to 9900 files to be stored, depending on the path length - this is much enough for everyday use, I guess. ■ ZDIFFD.EXE : All the files informations are stored in the GLOBAL memory. (DPMI) So, you can virtually store as many files that you have memory free, up to 16380 files at one time in memory. You need Windows or any other DPMI server, like Borland's RTM.EXE and DPMI16BI.OVL. Note : Borland DPMI server can be found on Compuserve : GO BORFORUMS, then choose 'Borland Pascal forum'. Then, choose the 'From Borland' library section, and download the file called NEWRTM.ZIP. ■ Note concerning the archives : if the -r option is not specified, the files containing a path in their name are not included in the comparison. Only the files in the main directory of the archive are treated, and only the files in the specified directory are specified also. However, a warning is displayed if a directory path is found in an archive, and you haven't specified the -r option. 6. Remarks ---------- I made my possible to make this program free of bugs, but if ever something is wrong with ZDIFF, tell me. I'll fix it ASAP. Please notice that ZDiff supports international information from DOS, since PKUNZIP does. (it concerns the date format, used for time comparison, that is different in US than in France, for example). The DOS Country information is read for this purpose. The 3 date formats that exists are USA, European and Japanese. If ever the comparison of dates seems to be wrong in ZDiff, you can override (with the /C option) this state of thing, to set a date format to use on your machine. See the 'Syntax' section. Note : if you use the /Z option to display technical information, the country information reported by ZDIFFD.EXE will be 112 instead of the correct country number, if you use the Borland DPMI RTM ; The date format, however, will be correctly detected and used. This is because this function is not supported in RTM. The correct country number will be correctly obtained, running ZDiffD under Windows DPMI. Since ZDiff writes a few temporary data on your hard disk (in your temp directory), you should not reboot while ZDiff is running, as this could result in lost sectors. (CHKDSK /F corrects it) Just use Ctrl-Break if you want to abort the program. 7. Disclaimer ------------- Even if there is really no possibility for this program to damage your data, here is the usual disclaimer message : As a shareware program, ZDIFF is distributed as-is. The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied. The author will assume no liability for damages either from the direct use of this product or as a consequence of it's use. PKUNZIP, PKUNPAK, ZIP, ARJ, ZOO, PAK, LZH, LHARC, LHA are copyrighted by their respective authors. 8. How to contact the author ---------------------------- If you like this program, and plan to use it, you may try it during a 21 days period, after what I would appreciate a donation from you. I develop many tools for my own use, (this one helps me a lot!) and I would like to share what I do with others. If users gives me money, it will be a proof that my tools are useful : in this case, I'll spend more time to update them, and adding features. Of course, you can send what you want, but I would like to precise that when I want to have a Dollar check paid in my bank, it costs me $11 (I live in France). So, if you want to send money, please consider this, and send more than $11 ! ($20 would be good) An other option is sending cash notes in an enveloppe. If you can do that, please send about $10 or more. ** Thanks in advance. ** ------------------------------------------------- HERE IS MY ADDRESS Christophe Dubourg FOR MAIL, CHECKS, or 23, rue Victor Hugo CASH : 78370 PLAISIR FRANCE ------------------------------------------------- --> Even if you don't send money, please feel free to send me your remarks, suggestions, and specific problems encountered with this program. It will be a pleasure to read your mail and to answer it ! Don't hesitate to contact me, at the following addresses : --------------------------------------------------------------- Compuserve : 73233,1412 (Christophe Dubourg) or 73233,1412@compuserve.com MCI Mail : CDUBOURG (453-6013) or cdubourg@mcimail.com Internet : cdubourg@borland.com At home (paper Mail) : Christophe Dubourg 23, rue Victor Hugo 78370 PLAISIR FRANCE --------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for using ZDiff, I hope it helps. //ChD