Directory Compare breaks for time differences

[Ian]

Dear all,

Often, because of file system differences (and daylight saving time), files have time stamps that are exactly 1 hour different but are identical files. Currently directory compare breaks when encountering such files. Most directory compare programs allow one to specify this to overcome such issues. It would be great if Salamander also had such an option and was not affected by this.

Looking forward to 2.5!!!

[jis]

Often, because of file system differences (and daylight saving time), files have time stamps that are exactly 1 hour different but are identical files. Currently directory compare breaks when encountering such files. Most directory compare programs allow one to specify this to overcome such issues. It would be great if Salamander also had such an option and was not affected by this.

Please, look here: Options / Configuration / General /
Time resolution of file compare (used in Compare Directories)
Set 3600s and that's all...

[Petr Solin]

Often, because of file system differences (and daylight saving time), files have time stamps that are exactly 1 hour different but are identical files. Currently directory compare breaks when encountering such files. Most directory compare programs allow one to specify this to overcome such issues. It would be great if Salamander also had such an option and was not affected by this.

Please, look here: Options / Configuration / General /
Time resolution of file compare (used in Compare Directories)
Set 3600s and that's all...

This means that time difference up to one hour will be ignored. So this is not solution to this problem (we need exactly one hour).

We will have to add such option, we have it on to-do list, but it has relatively low priority.

[jis]

Oops, I didn't mention it.
I use my tip only as a workaround. Sometimes another round of Compare Directories with content is needed to be sure...

I wish that you put this problem on your internal To-Do list higher, the solution will not be so complicated I think. This is really annoying. This behavior occurs because of the way that Windows NT stores time information, see:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=129574

[Ian]

OK, it's good to know it is on a to-do list somewhere. It's a shame it is low priority though - it effectively breaks directory compare in Salamander for me...

Thanks again for a great app.

[therube]

This means that time difference up to one hour will be ignored. So this is not solution to this problem (we need exactly one hour).

Just to bump this & to add +- 2 seconds.

(I'm not sure if this is an appropriate quote for what I believe I see from time to time, but ...)

NT FAT, create time has a resolution of 10 milliseconds, write time has a resolution of 2 seconds

In addition to 3600 s, does there also exist a 2 s issue, so 3600 s could be 3602 s when comparing say a Win98 FAT to XP NTFS?

(My ill placed post, Compare Directories - File Time Issues)

[jis]

We will have to add such option, we have it on to-do list, but it has relatively low priority.

Hello, is there any progress, can we expect this option in the final 2.5 version?

[Jan Rysavy]

No progress (low priority).

[Ron]

It would be so nice, if we could input a value little bit larger than 3600 s in the configuration panel. I always must change the value in my registry to 3602 s after changing any other settings.

btw. Salamander is great.

[Petr Solin]

OK, it seems to bother more people, so I'll try to patch this DST problem in the version 2.51.

Edit: changed version numbers: 2.6 to 2.51, 2.7 to 2.52, and 2.8 to 2.53

[therube]

change the value in my registry to 3602 s

Thanks.
I never even thought of looking there.

[mdruiter]

Just in case you Altap guys not happen to think of it: if you implement this (which I would REALLY appreciate!), please allow more (any?) multiples of an hour, in addition to a few seconds. I often find a difference of two hours (and sometimes a second) when comparing FTP content.

[Petr Solin]

I have added "Compare Directories: ignore time differences of exactly one or two hours" checkbox and changed "Time resolution of file compare (used in Compare Directories)" to "Compare Directories: ignore time differences up to". When Compare Directories detects pair of files with time difference of exactly one or two hours, it informs you that you can change settings to ignore it (to bypass DST related file time shifts). And when it should be ignored, it is, but it shows a note about how many pairs of files have this time difference. I think user should know about it, there is still small chance that this time difference is not DST related and its ignorance is unwanted. Both messages are optional, can be turned off. It will be available in 2.53 (also in its preview build).

[Ether]

Cool.

[therube]

Now with PB38, just to bump this thread for the 2 second difference too.

My HDD, NTFS. My Flash drive, FAT32.

Comparing directories & Salamander notifies me of 6 pairs of 1 or 2 hour difference.
That is fine. (Perhaps could they be colored differently, to point them out? <Yes, some sort of way to mark them would be nice.>)

But it is flagging as different the 1 hour 2 second difference files, which are in fact the same.

Code: Select all

05/20/2006 12:17:02 vs 05/19/2006 11:17:01 -> 1 hour 1 sec
09/18/2008 11:33:18 vs 09/18/2008 10:33:16 -> 1 hour 2 sec