Comparing a FileWatcher inventory against a different folder

Introduction

This article provides a step-by-step guide to compare a FileWatcher inventory against a different folder from the original inventoried path. To be able to complete this guide, you will need access to the windows command prompt and an inventory created by FileWatcher.

How and why

A standard comparison is where FileWatcher compares the contents of an inventory against the original inventoried folder. A slightly more advanced comparison is where FileWatcher compares an inventory against a different target folder. An example of this usage is with comparing distributed files or applications where the installation location may differ between computers.

How does comparison differ - path rewriting?

The only difference of note to the comparison carried out is with regard to file or folder paths. FileWatcher uses relative root paths when checking against a different folder: the path checked is relative to the root of both the originally compared folder and the root of the folder being compared against.

For example: An Inventory was created against the folder D:\Testing. This inventory contained a file at the path D:\Calzada Media\Testing\MyFolder\04_hd.png. This inventory is then compared against the folder D:\Testing2. FileWatcher will rewrite the paths and will actually look for a file at the path D:\Testing\MyFolder\04_hd.png

About this guide

This guide uses the inventory generated in the Creating an Inventory with FileWatcher article in which an inventory was created as follows:

• The folder in which the FileWatcher application is stored is D:\Testing
• The files and folders that were inventorised are stored in D:\Testing\FolderToInventory
• The folder into which the inventory was saved is D:\Testing\MyInventories

This resulted in an inventory file of Inventory-18-Jan-2019_113221.xml being saved in D:\Testing\MyInventories.

In this article, we will comparing against the folder D:\Testing\MyFolder2.

Method

Step 1: At the command line

Open a command prompt. This may done either by click searching for "Command Prompt" or pressing Windows Key + R and entering "cmd" and then pressing enter.

Once in the command prompt, go to the location were FileWatcher application is stored.

cd "D:\Testing"

Enter the create inventory FileWatcher command and then hit enter.

FileWatcher /COMPARE /CI "D:\Testing\MyInventories\Inventory-18-Jan-2019_113221.xml" /CF "D:\Testing\MyFolder2"

In the example above, the arguments are:

• /COMPARE - tells FileWatcher to run a comparison operation
• /CI - the path to the reference inventory file.
• /CF - the path to the folder to compare against.

Step 2: The comparison starts

Once you hit enter, FileWatcher will start the comparison process. Depending on the size of both the original inventory and the target folder, this may take some time depending on available system resources.

During this process, FileWatcher will write a verbose output of what it is doing to the console and also to the comparison log file. In the example below, the comparison has found a number of missing and unknown files. At the very end of the output there is a summary of found, changed, missing and unknown files.

25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Writing log to 'InventoryCompare-25-Jan-2019_162325.log'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Generating temporary inventory for folder 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Successfully generated inventory for folder 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\03_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\04_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\05_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Bergere_(Manet).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Vanitas_Still_Life_(Claesz).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\A_Young_Girl_Reading_(Fragonard).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Adoration_of_the_Magi_(Mantegna).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Alexander's_Victory_(Altdorfer).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\American_Gothic_(Wood).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Aristotle_Contemplating_the_Bust_of_Homer_(Rembrandt).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Bathing_at_Asniers.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Missing entry 'D:\Testing\FolderToInventory\Classic Fine Art\Thumbs.db'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\04_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\45-degree-fabric-light.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\73351_v0_600x.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\b83136607970012f2fdf00163e41dd5b.gif'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Bergere_(Manet).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Vanitas_Still_Life_(Claesz).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\A_Young_Girl_Reading_(Fragonard).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Adoration_of_the_Magi_(Mantegna).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Alexander's_Victory_(Altdorfer).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\American_Gothic_(Wood).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Aristotle_Contemplating_the_Bust_of_Homer_(Rembrandt).jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Bathing_at_Asniers.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\Classic Fine Art\Thumbs.db'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\03_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\04_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded folder\05_hd.png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\blade runner.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\Screenshot (1).png'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\excluded images\shepard-fairey-war-is-over.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\070209165144a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\070209165806a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107185053a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107190544a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107190846a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\181107192356a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209183923a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209184017a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Unknown entry 'D:\Testing\MyFolder2\ship-photos.de\201209184249a.jpg'
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    Comparison completed, duration 111 milliseconds
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Unchanged Entries
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Folders: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Files: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Total: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Changed Entries
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Folders: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Files: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Total: 0
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Missing Entries
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Folders: 2
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Files: 12
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Total: 14
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Unknown Entries
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Folders: 5
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Files: 28
25 JAN 2019 16:23:25     Information    - Total: 33

Further Information

You may also compare an inventory against the original folder.