Altap Salamander Support Forums

Say I do the following:
- Compare Directories
- choose folders A and B
- check Date and time (only)
- check Compare subdirectories
- uncheck Compare attributes of subdirectories

Now A and B both contain a subfolder C.
The files in B\C are older than those in A\C, to A\C is highlighted.
The modification date of the folder B\C is newer than of A\C. Should B\C be highlighted too?
I think not.

If I did the test correctly, both of the folders are highligted even when the their times differences are similar to those of the files they contain (i.e. B\C\* is newer than A\C\* and B\C is newer than A\C).

Thinking that DIRECTORIES (themselves) are not taken into consideration & are only used to indicate that there are FILE differences according to the selected comparison criteria.

So Compare Directories is not a comparison of "directories", but of the FILES contained therein.

Take A/C & B/C & add a D where the FILE contents of D are the same, but the directory 'D' data/time are different.

Comparing date/time will NOT highlight the directory 'D'.

A/C | B/C
A/D | B/D - D's file contents are the same, A/D directory is dated different from B/D directory



I renamed existing components directory to components.orig, then copied the Left components directory to right. Did not preserve existing date/time of directory, so Right is now newer. File contents within are the same.

(Shot is of SeaMonkey <Mozilla> browser. Typical for file names to remain consistent, very few additions or removals. File sizes may vary, but can be consistent, though the file contents is often changed.)


EDIT to clarify: Looks like the DIRECTORIES attributes (date/time, Attr) are not taken into consideration... Obviously missing/added directories are considered.

Ether wrote:If I did the test correctly, both of the folders are highligted even when the their times differences are similar to those of the files they contain (i.e. B\C\* is newer than A\C\* and B\C is newer than A\C).

Indeed. And the folder times do not matter after all.

So if a subfolder's files are all newer, it is highlighted on both sides. This is also what the docs say:

directories with different contents will be selected in both panels.

But why?
It would be very useful to see which side has newer files.