DonationCoder.com Software > Skwire Empire
Release: SFV Ninja (Simple File Verification application)
Cocoa:
Hello!
I've very glad I spotted your software fairly quick after coming to the forums. I spent the entire evening testing out around 7 or 8 different checksum generating or verifying software after trawling the internet, and in the end I had to come back to Donationcoder to find something even close to approaching what I need. I just wish I had thought of coming here sooner, but the forum is still a bit difficult to sift through to find a particular software for a particular need.
Your SFV Ninja's ability to generate checksum files with relative paths is a big bonus for me to decide to try it out--all the other tools glaring oversight to only be able to generate and verify checksums with static paths frustrated me to no end... (You'd think this was one of the most basic things that's needed for verifying checksum files )
Unforunately I still can't seem to figure out how to have SFV Ninja do all that I need, which is really quite simple:
I have two folders, say named Folder A and Folder B.
They're stored under different paths and have different names. Inside are other nested folders and files, which have the same general directory structure, but may or may not all match. What I'm trying to find out is exactly what's there and what's not, and for the ones that have same filename and path, whether they're indeed the exact same files.
So I need a file checksum tool that can do the following:
1. Scan and generate checksum files such as SFV or other formats for a folder, e.g. Folder A, with all subfolders and files inside.
2. Use the generated checksum file to compare against another folder, with different path and top level folder name, e.g. Folder B for the contents INSIDE.
3. Generate a report that tells me what matches and what's missing/changed. This doesn't have to be very comprehensive, but should be easy to read.
In the short amount of time I had left for the evening, I couldn't test SFV Ninja very thoroughly, but it seems it already got two out of the three down pretty well. Tihe only issue I have left is how can I accomplish the missing one (#2 in the steps)?
Deozaan:
I have two folders, say named Folder A and Folder B.
They're stored under different paths and have different names. Inside are other nested folders and files, which have the same general directory structure, but may or may not all match. What I'm trying to find out is exactly what's there and what's not, and for the ones that have same filename and patch, whether they're indeed the exact same files.
-Cocoa (March 16, 2017, 04:04 AM)
--- End quote ---
The fact that SFV Ninja stores relative paths instead of absolute paths lets you accomplish what you want:
* Use SFV Ninja to create a checksum file for Folder A.
* Save the resulting checksum file in Folder A.
* Move the checksum file (or copy it) to Folder B.
* Open the checksum file with SFV Ninja and have it verify the checksums.
That said, it sounds like what you actually want is a diff program, such as WinMerge.
skwire:
I have two folders, say named Folder A and Folder B.
They're stored under different paths and have different names. Inside are other nested folders and files, which have the same general directory structure, but may or may not all match. What I'm trying to find out is exactly what's there and what's not, and for the ones that have same filename and patch, whether they're indeed the exact same files.
-Cocoa (March 16, 2017, 04:04 AM)
--- End quote ---
Even though I'm the developer of SFV Ninja, as Deo mentioned, what you need is a diff program -- something like Beyond Compare from Scooter Software. Here's a screenshot showing what you're describing:
Release: SFV Ninja (Simple File Verification application)
Beyond Compare is a wonderful program that I've used for over ten years.
Cocoa:
I have two folders, say named Folder A and Folder B.
They're stored under different paths and have different names. Inside are other nested folders and files, which have the same general directory structure, but may or may not all match. What I'm trying to find out is exactly what's there and what's not, and for the ones that have same filename and patch, whether they're indeed the exact same files.
-Cocoa (March 16, 2017, 04:04 AM)
--- End quote ---
The fact that SFV Ninja stores relative paths instead of absolute paths lets you accomplish what you want:
* Use SFV Ninja to create a checksum file for Folder A.
* Save the resulting checksum file in Folder A.
* Move the checksum file (or copy it) to Folder B.
* Open the checksum file with SFV Ninja and have it verify the checksums.-Deozaan (March 16, 2017, 09:40 AM)
--- End quote ---
That's what I thought would be the steps, except when I created the checksum file and moved it to the other folder, then selected "Load checksum file" -> "Verify All", all I got was the program re-verifying all the files in the initial folder that the checksum was created from. I also tried "Scan folder for checksum file and load" and got the same result.
Also would like to make a suggestion to Jody/skwire (not sure which you prefer), can you add a "clear selected" option? Sometimes someone might want to clear only a portion of the results or list before saving it to file, and being able to clear the exact ones a user needs instead of everything or everything of one type would be nice.
Additionally, thank you both for the software suggestions. I'm aware of WinMerge, though I haven't heard of Beyond Compare before. At a glance, Beyond Compare would seem to be perfect for my other need of maintaining and cross syncing backups of folders and files on multiple hard drives. I've been searching for something like that as well, so thank you! I'll definitely give it a try.
It's true that from the singular usage example I described, there are other types of software that can do what I need. But I really value efficiency in software and like to look for applications that can do as much of what I need as possible, with as little resource usage as possible. Since I also have a need for generating sfv files to send to other people for their verification purposes, I was mainly trying to find such a checksum generating software that could also let me compare the two folders in this way. It would seem to be a very simple and basic usage need that's quite standard for this type of application. I honestly did not anticipate the difficulty I would have in finding what I needed, but I'm very glad I came here.
skwire:
That's what I thought would be the steps, except when I created the checksum file and moved it to the other folder, then selected "Load checksum file" -> "Verify All", all I got was the program re-verifying all the files in the initial folder that the checksum was created from. I also tried "Scan folder for checksum file and load" and got the same result.-Cocoa (March 17, 2017, 05:18 AM)
--- End quote ---
This might be a bit confusing but where you save the SFV file is important in relation to which files are in the list:
* Files that are on the same drive as the saved SFV file path are saved with paths relative to the save folder.
* Files that are on a different drive than the saved SFV file path are saved with full paths.
So, in your example of using Folder A and Folder B, you load the contents of Folder A in SFV Ninja, check them, and then you must save the SFV directly in Folder A in order to generate the correct relative paths for use when you move the SFV file to Folder B. Does this make sense?
Also would like to make a suggestion to Jody/skwire (not sure which you prefer), can you add a "clear selected" option?-Cocoa (March 17, 2017, 05:18 AM)
--- End quote ---
I can add it to the menu (oversight on my part) but, in the meantime, simply press Delete after selecting/highlighting the items you want to remove.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version