Create separate checksum files for directories - target path ignored

[Flint]

1. Select a few subdirectories, call File — Create Checksum File(s).
2. Turn on the option "Create separate checksum files for each directory" (the destination field will change the name into a * mask).
3. Change the destination path to some other directory but keep the mask, like C:\Temp\*.sha1; press OK.
4. The checksum files are created in the selected subdirectories themselves; whatever path you entered is completely ignored.

If you use "separate checksums for each file", the destination path works correctly (only the files are not put into subdirs, but that's probably intentional); so with the "directories" option I'd expect it to work too.

Tested in 9.50a rc1 x32 and x64, Win7.

[ghisler(Author)]

This is by design. When creating checksums by directory, they will be placed in these directories.

[Flint]

But why is that so different from the option "for each file"? I'm not sure that is a good idea. What about read-only locations, like system-protected paths which require elevated Admin for writing, or read-only network shares?

Anyway, if that's by design, it definitely should be explained in the help.

[ghisler(Author)]

But why is that so different from the option "for each file"?

With the option "for each file", all checksum files just go to the indicated target directory with the names of the files (no directory hierarchy). This is also rather useless because the checksum files don't contain absolute paths.

[Flint]

With the option "for each file", all checksum files just go to the indicated target directory with the names of the files (no directory hierarchy).

That's not true. Well, not always true. If you leave the target path unchanged, the checksum files will be created in the subdirectories.

Example: Suppose in C:\Temp\ we have the following structure:

Code: Select all

|-dir1\
|  |-file1.txt
|  |-file2.txt
|-file3.txt
|-file4.txt

Select dir1, file3.txt, file4.txt; call Files - Create Checksums; turn on the "…for each file" option and leave the destination path unchanged: C:\Temp\*.sha

The result will be:

Code: Select all

|-dir1\
|  |-file1.sha
|  |-file1.txt
|  |-file2.sha
|  |-file2.txt
|-file3.sha
|-file3.txt
|-file4.sha
|-file4.txt

If you change the destination to anything else, then, indeed, all 4 SHA files will be created in the specified path, without subdirs. But at least they will be in the directory where I asked TC to create them. So, with the option "…for each directory" I would expect the same behavior, only with one file for the "dir1" contents instead of several.