Total Commander

Hi,
Currently I am not aware of a way to easily check if several files have identical contents or not (Search for duplicates / Compare checksums / Copy to target panel and sync dirs, etc.). Therefore I'd like to propose an enhancement to the Compare By Content function for multiple files. The result would not be any visual comparison of differences, only a short message if the files are or are not equal.

The logic would follow the CbC logic, so, if no files are selected, the usual CbC is invoked.
If multiple files are selected (in one or both panels), all selected files are compared against each other and the result is a message saying either that the files are identical or that the files are different (similar to the situation when TC does not have enough memory to load the files and show the differences).
Perhaps it would be doable that if only one file is different and all the others are identical, TC would show the name of the one different file.
This could be implemented as a new cm_CompareMultipleFilesByContent as to not break backwards compatibility.

TIA for any comments.
Roman
P.S.: I am aware I could write an AHK script to compare selected files, however, I'd like to not go that way.

If multiple files are selected (in one or both panels), all selected files are compared against each other and the result is a message

Currently selecting two files in the same panel makes a visual comparison, not just a message - I use that a lot so multiple has to be 3 or more to not break backwards compability,

petermad,

petermad wrote:to not break backwards compability

Hacker wrote:This could be implemented as a new cm_CompareMultipleFilesByContent as to not break backwards compatibility.

Roman

I'd also like to be able to compare more than two files. Currently I do this by generating checksums for the files and comparing them.

How about this;

If you're only comparing two files (same pane, or opposing panes), CBC works the same as it does now. If you're comparing three or more files, TC generates a checksum for all the selected files. If all the files match, it tells you so. If any of the files are different, TC will display a list of all the files, with matching files grouped together.

For example, let's say that you compare five files, files A, B, and C are the same, files D and E are different, but match each other. TC would show that A-C are identical and D & E are identical to each other, but different from the first three. You would then have the option of selecting any two of the files for a traditional CBC, at which point, TC would act as if you had selected only those two files and initiated a CBC.