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in-file links: preamble - commands - downloads - Beyond Compare - FileZilla - MD5 - SHA1 - end
To compare two folders, the old, and the new, and to compare individual files, within the folders, is VERY IMPORTANT to a programmer ... and perhaps equally important to HTML authors ...
2010-04-17: Minor update, adding (temporary) 'Exclude File <selected>' to
right mouse button context menu.
2009-01-23: Have now started to use the open source, WinMerge, and so far it is looking good.
This is just the latest, in a long line, so it is called DC4W - the 'DC' - that's easy, 'Directory Compare' - the 4 was the 16-bit to 32-bit change ... and the 'W', for 'Windows, of course ... here is a typical view -
Red background are files 'Only in Left', yellow background, files 'Only in Right', red are changed, but older, green are changed and newer ... there are many 'filters' to change this view ... and in 'expanded' view, does a line-by-line compare of the two chosen files ...
The program DC4w accepts some command line options, in addition to the two directories to compare. Should one day write a propeer help file!
| -r[-|+]]=Recursive [-L] | Shallow [-N=No A.Zip] |
| -s[slrd][:outfile]] | Save File List |
| -d[slrd][:outfile]] | Write Difference File |
| NOTE: if outfile given file written and app exits | |
| -Ifilename, or mask, to add input file names | |
| -x[-|+[nn]]] | Disable/Enable exclude list [num] |
| -xd:<[@]dirs>|-xf:<[@]files>] | Specific exclude items. |
| -xd[fp|cvs|svn|git|all] | to exclude FrontPage, CVS, SVN, git, or all these (hidden) folders. |
| -zzipfile.zip | Indicates it is a ZIP file (seems broken!) |
case 'C': // case flag
case 'D': // write a DIFFERENCE file
case 'E': // -E no expand if only 1 in wd_initial
case 'I': // include file names FIX20051204
case 'L': // shallow - no recursive?
case 'N': // no zip
case 'R': // Recursive
case 'S': // Save a FILE LIST
case 'T': // ignore date/time
case 'X': // EXCLUDE D=Directories F=Files, or -X+11 to exclude List11 [Exclude]
case 'Z': // one of the COMPARES is a ZIP file
The following table gives the versions over the last few years. Clicking on the file name should commence a download of the ZIP file. If that does not work, you can try a Right Mouse Button click, and choose 'Save Target As ...'. You can check its integrity by comparing the MD5 digest string. Below, for the earlier files I have also given the SHA1 digest, and where to find the source to build these digest utilities.
As usual, take care downloading and running things from the web! It is highly recommended that you download the source, and compile it yourself. Microsoft offers an 'Express Edition' for free, of their C/C++ IDE tools...
| Date | File | Size | Notes | Digest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08/08/2013 | dc4w-52.zip | 859,203 | Source | 3df9703c64d83b5b0ea03770b4e295d3 |
| 08/08/2013 | dc4we52.zip | 232,116 | Runtime | 525babb44b2054f1b36fe2821db8e2fb |
| Older versions | ||||
| 27/07/2010 | dc4we48.zip | 216,538 | Runtime | f1bc2744584c1c83aa4752e1dc34d313 |
| 27/07/2010 | dc4w-48.zip | 849,016 | Source | 58f01fb6d833eccfee474ad916822615 |
| 17/04/2010 | dc4we47.zip | 216,473 | Runtime | bb5e1c3bfa04e817599ce79ba00fea67 |
| 17/04/2010 | dc4w-47.zip | 848,964 | Source | 01c26da912b561f0ad8098ff3dfc2b60 |
| 04/02/2010 | dc4we45.zip | 216,360 | Runtime | 5fea544333fd4db588c1423216bd5a34 |
| 04/02/2010 | dc4w-45.zip | 848,604 | Source | f8406319a75d5a3ea6a0a08705a1ffd7 |
| 25/11/2008 | dc4we41.zip | 215,597 | Runtime | f4eee4f9570c0e890c5cc21e4eeb539e |
| 25/11/2008 | dc4w-41.zip | 836,054 | Source | 280308a9e0bf4cba25cb89243cde97e5 |
| October, 2007 | dc4we38.zip | 213,377 | Runtime | d34b613b221c9adfc5cedb9fd503804c |
| October, 2007 | dc4w-38.zip | 843,812 | Source | 932f34c52455ad0857403744bb796c4e |
| May, 2007 | dc4we37.zip | 213,125 | Runtime | d34b613b221c9adfc5cedb9fd503804c |
| May, 2007 | dc4w-37.zip | 843,112 | Source | 932f34c52455ad0857403744bb796c4e |
| December, 2006 | DC4W-36.zip | 845,811 | Source | 4437dbafd66f021bf5f6783af6995cf9 |
| December, 2006 | dc4we36.zip | 211,828 | Runtime | d4c048a10aa89e0136a92509bb37062f |
| November, 2006 | dc4w-34.zip | 843,819 | Source | 1b9b2bab16d6d8da27771b773acc29c1 |
| November, 2006 | dc4we34.zip | 211,589 | Runtime | 1447348884f821329337c3cb4743a4a6 |
| October, 2005 | dc4w-30.zip | 816,726 | Source | fa001bf117c0bc42bf195a7db00df525 |
| October, 2005 | dc4we30.zip | 219,404 | Runtime | b3d12b235037b82602dd72863a1deebc |
| December, 2004 | dc4w-28.zip | 803,120 | Source | 8abfa189c70edbcead9b51e6998381cc |
| December, 2004 | dc4we28.zip | 305,827 | Runtime | 740972e147e83ebe7f873c3133685d6c |
The December, 2004 was built using Microsoft Visual C/C++ of that time, MSVC6. The October, 2005 was built using MSVC7.1, and subsequent usually using Microsoft Visual C/C++ .NET 2005 Express, MSVC8 ... As always, a small warning - take care with downloading, and using binaries from the web ;=(( A sign of our times ... see 'File Security' below ...
Another 'directory compare' was commenced, BUT NEVER COMPLETED! But perhaps contains some more work on a list...
| 2009-01-24 | dircmpe01.zip | 7,359 | Runtime | bea24f7a13f4db569c87e34b936681b0 |
| 2009-01-24 | dircmp-01.zip | 17,247 | Source | 04c0099d98f1c3647936c6346e870ba8 |
At present, a lot of the functionality, and more, has been taken over by a program I purchased, called 'Beyond Compare' ... see http://www.scootersoftware.com/ ... it does ALL my dc4w does, and more ... and it allows 'remote' server updating, via FTP ... very neat indeed ... an excellent buy ... but ...
More recently, January 2006, I have had some difficulty, on certain ftp connections, with the FTP client, built into Beyond Compare ... I was getting unexplained delays when uploading, even on very small files ... this delay was for just 10-25 seconds, but it brought the file throughput to bytes per second, instead of KB per second! ... a friend pointed me to two newer freeware ftp clients, WinSCP, and FileZilla ... I downloaded both, including source, but have only really tried FileZilla ... Beyond Compare FTP transfer was subsequently FIXED ;=)) by checking 'Passive Mode' in Options ...
April, 2008: Upgraded my 2.4.3 to 2.5.2, installed in my new Vista machine, and it looks fine ...
It has a very busy, multiple panes, user interface, with the left side being the local file system view, and the right being the remote file system, when connected ... the top pane shows the ftp exchange, and it establishes multiple ports, and does simultaneous transfers, with lovely little independent progress bars in the bottom pane ... it has a nice connection manager for setting up multiple ftp sites ... the drag and drop, of multiple selections, is certainly very easy to do ... this is already well on the way to being my favorite, preferred ftp client ...
Screen snapshot of FileZilla
It is interesting to note, in the respective sources, that both use PuTTY code to do the SSL (secure socket layer) connection ... in fact, from what I saw from a brief run of WinSCP, it has a very similar dialog interface to that which PuTTY offers ...
Initially, I could not compile either from source - WinSCP requires Borland's tools, which I do not have! - and FileZilla had a dependence on libidn (through idna.h), but I was able to compile it from source subsequently ;=)) FileZilla screen snapshot is given below ...
For whatever it is worth, below are the MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm, numbers on these two
October, 2005 zips -
MD5 (dc4w-30.zip) = fa001bf117c0bc42bf195a7db00df525
MD5 (dc4we30.zip) = b3d12b235037b82602dd72863a1deebc
These were generated from the MD5 'C' source found here - http://userpages.umbc.edu/~mabzug1/cs/md5/md5.html ... Thank you for the
zip - a copy of the tar.gz is in the table below, RSA Data, in case this site 'disappears'
... And assume this code was taken from the RFC site - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1321.html ...
Another source can be obtained from : http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=42360. This code states it was derived from the RFC - http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1321.txt - A copy of the original Aladdin Enterprises source is in the table below. I used this latter source and compiled a binary using Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (MSVC8), with a few of my own changes in the zips below :-
| Date | File | Size | Notes | Digest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 26/11/2008 | md5e01.zip | 56,334 | Runtime | 62cbed8a95a5310f2c31d49a462412a4 |
| 26/11/2008 | md5-01.zip | 14,923 | Source | 75f3e70e4b57ef48ebfc3e60112dbfc1 |
| Original Sources | ||||
| 2002-04-13 | md5.tar.gz | 6,170 | Aladdin | 60f1691ece16bedc12dd2aa949cba606 |
| 1995-08-09 | md5-c-100.tar.gz | 6,299 | RSA Data | 31d3577c674b27a6e6dab0ebadff7254 |
As always - TAKE CARE DOWNLOADING AND RUNNING EXECUTABLES FROM THE WEB - ;=/
For what it is further worth, the US Secure Hash Algorithm 1 (SHA1) for these files is as
follows -
SHA1 (dc4w-30.zip) = CE801495D21A4EB2328F79945AE5CB60176BE4FD
SHA1 (dc4we30.zip) = 5FB93BF09BFBB73E76DC0459F43D0372D42E4D9A
These were generated using the code on this RFC site - http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc3174.html ...
See if they can break both, at the same time ;=)
