Difference between two directories in Linux [close

Question

I'm trying to find the files existing in one directory but not in the other, I tried to use this command:

diff -q dir1 dir2

The problem with the above command that it finds both the files in dir1 but not in dir2 as well as the files in dir2 but not in dir1,

I am trying to find the files in dir1 but not in dir2 only.

Here's a small sample of what my data looks like

dir1    dir2    dir3
1.txt   1.txt   1.txt
2.txt   3.txt   3.txt
5.txt   4.txt   5.txt
6.txt   7.txt   8.txt

Another question on my mind is how can I find the files in dir1 but not in dir2 or dir3 in a single command?

Answer 1

This is a bit late but may help someone. Not sure if diff or rsync spit out just filenames in a bare format like this. Thanks to plhn for giving that nice solution which I expanded upon below.

If you want just the filenames so it's easy to just copy the files you need in a clean format, you can use the find command.

comm -23 <(find dir1 | sed 's/dir1/\//'| sort) <(find dir2 | sed 's/dir2/\//'| sort) | sed 's/^\//dir1/'

This assumes that both dir1 and dir2 are in the same parent folder. sed just removes the parent folder so you can compare apples with apples. The last sed just puts the dir1 name back.

If you just want files:

comm -23 <(find dir1 -type f | sed 's/dir1/\//'| sort) <(find dir2 -type f | sed 's/dir2/\//'| sort) | sed 's/^\//dir1/'

Similarly for directories:

comm -23 <(find dir1 -type d | sed 's/dir1/\//'| sort) <(find dir2 -type d | sed 's/dir2/\//'| sort) | sed 's/^\//dir1/'

Answer 2

GNU grep can inverse the search with the option -v. This makes grep reporting the lines, which do not match. By this you can remove the files in dir2 from the list of files in dir1.

grep -v -F -x -f <(find dir2 -type f -printf '%P\n') <(find dir1 -type f -printf '%P\n')

The options -F -x tell grep to perform a string search on the whole line.

Answer 3

kdiff3 has a nice diff interface for files and directories.

It works on Windows, Linux, and macOS.

You can install it in multiple ways:

• Windows
  • 64-bit installer
  • 32-bit installer
• macOS
  • Binary
  • Homebrew Cask: brew cask install kdiff3

Answer 4

comm -23 <(ls dir1 |sort) <(ls dir2|sort)

This command will give you files those are in dir1 and not in dir2.

About <( ) sign, you can google it as 'process substitution'.

Answer 5

Meld (http://meldmerge.org/) does a great job at comparing directories and the files within.

Answer 6

A simplified way to compare 2 directories using the DIFF command

diff filename.1 filename.2 > filename.dat >>Enter

open filename.dat after the run is complete

and you will see: Only in filename.1: filename.2 Only in: directory_name: name_of_file1 Only in: directory_Name: name_of_file2