Options for Comparing and Merging Directories

- The KDiff3-preferences (menu "Settings"->"Configure KDiff3") has - a section called "Directory Merge" with these options: -

Recursive Directories:

Select whether to search directories - recursively.

File Pattern(s):

Only files that match any pattern here will - be put in the tree. More than one pattern may be specified here by using - the semicolon ";" as separator. Valid wildcards: '*' and '?'. (e.g. "*.cpp;*.h"). - Default is "*". This pattern is not used on directories.

File Anti-Pattern(s):

Files that match this pattern - will be excluded from the tree. More than one pattern may be specified here - via using the semicolon ";" as separator. Valid wildcards: '*' and '?'. Default - is "*.orig;*.o;*.obj".

Directory Anti-Pattern(s):

Directories that match this pattern - will be excluded from the tree. More than one pattern may be specified here - via using the semicolon ";" as separator. Valid wildcards: '*' and '?'. Default - is "CVS;deps;.svn".

Use CVS-Ignore:

- Ignore files and directories that would also be ignored by CVS. - Many automatically generated files are ignored by CVS. - The big advantage is that this can be directory specific via a local ".cvsignore"-file. - (See info:/cvs/cvsignore.)

Find Hidden Files and Directories:

On some file systems files - have an "Hidden"-attribute. On other systems a filename starting with a dot - "." causes it to be hidden. This option allows you to decide whether to - include these files in the tree or not. Default is on.

Follow File Links:

For links to files: When disabled, then - the symbolic links are compared. When enabled, then the files behind the - links are compared. Default is off.

Follow Directory Links:

For links to directories: When disabled, - then the symbolic links will be compared. When enabled then the link will - be treated like a directory and it will be scanned recursively. (Note that - the program doesn't check if the link is "recursive". So for example a directory - that contains a link to the directory would cause an infinite loop, and after - some time when the stack overflows or all memory is used up, crash the program.) - Default is off.

Case Sensitive Filename Comparison:

- Default is false on Windows, true for other operating systems.

File Comparison Mode:

Binary Comparison:: - This is the default file comparison mode. -
Full Analysis:: - Do a full analysis of each file and show the statistics information columns. - (Number of solved, unsolved, nonwhite and white conflicts.) - The full analysis is slower than a simple binary analysis, and much - slower when used on files that don't contain text. - (Specify the appropriate file-antipatterns.) -
Trust the modification date:: If you compare big directories - over a slow network, it might be faster to compare the modification dates - and file length alone. But this speed improvement comes with the price of - a little uncertainty. Use this option with care. Default is off.
Trust the size:: - Similar to trusting the modification date. No real comparison happens. Two - files are considered equal if their file-sizes are equal. This is useful - when the file-copy operation didn't preserve the modification date. - Use this option with care. Default is off.

Synchronize Directories:

Activates "Sync-Mode" when two directories - are compared and no explicit destination directory was specified. In this - mode the proposed operations will be chosen so that both source directories - are equal afterwards. Also the merge result will be written to both directories. - Default is off.

Copy newer instead of merging:

Instead of merging the proposed - operation will copy the newer source if changes happened. (Considered unsafe, - because it implies that you know, that the other file hasn't been edited - too. Check to make sure in every case.) Default is off.

Backup files:

If a file or complete directory is replaced - by another or is deleted then the original version will be renamed with an - ".orig" extension. If an old backup file with ".orig" extension already exists - then this will be deleted without backup. This also affects the normal merging - of single files, not only in directory-merge mode. Default is on.