Comparing and synchronized browsing

Two Commander features help when a local and a remote tree should look alike. Compare Directories marks what differs in the open folders. Synchronize Browsing moves the other panel along whenever you change folder in one. Neither one transfers files.

Compare the open directories

1. Open the two directories you want to compare, one in each panel.
2. Choose Commands › Compare Directories or press Shift+F2.

linscp selects, in each panel, the files that are missing on the other side or that are the newer copy of a pair. If both folders hold the same files, a message says no differences were found and nothing is selected.

The comparison looks only at the files in the two open folders. Subfolders are neither entered nor marked. The selection is ordinary, so you can press F5 next to copy the marked files across. For a recursive comparison with a list of planned changes, use Synchronize with Preview changes.

Choose the criteria

What counts as different is set in Options › Preferences › Commander, under Compare directory criteria:

• Compare by time: of two files with the same name, the one with the later modification time is marked. Times are compared at the precision the less exact side offers.
• Compare by size: when the times match, or time is not compared, files of unequal size are marked on both sides.

With both off, only files present on one side are marked.

Synchronized browsing

Turn on Commands › Synchronize Browsing, or press Ctrl+Alt+B. The status bar confirms the change. Press the same keys again to turn it off.

While it is on, every move in one panel is repeated in the other, relative to the folders that were open when you switched it on:

• Enter css on the local side, and the remote panel enters its own css.
• Go up a level, and the other panel goes up too.

This works as long as the two trees share their layout below the starting point. When the matching folder does not exist on the other side, linscp asks whether to create it. Answer No and synchronized browsing turns itself off.

Tip

Start synchronized browsing from the roots of the two trees, for example /home/alice/site and /var/www/html. The relative moves then line up from the first click.

Related tasks

• Copy the differences: Synchronizing directories.
• Keep a server copy current while you edit locally: Keeping a remote directory up to date.
• Select files by mask instead: Selecting, filtering and finding.