Compare two folders and output missing files in both folders

Question

I would like to compare two folders, strictly for filenames. (Not the file contents). I am on windows 10 and would like to use command line tools.

Here is scenario that may explain the issue.

Folders
-------
source                  source2 
   - file_1                 - file_1
   - file_2                 - file_2
   - file_3                 - file_4
   - file_5                 - file_5
   - file_6                 - file_7


Output should be:
-----------------
Source  -> Missing files file_4  
Source2 -> Missing files file_3  

I did some research, and there are many diff tools, but I am not interested in comparing the file contents. All I want is compare two folders and output which files are missing in both folders (compared to the other one).

I prefer not to use Powershell.

Thank you.

Solution 1

robocopy (included in recent Windows versions) can do this in one pass:

given \source\ and \source2\ with some files which are common and files which exist only in either folder, running

robocopy source source2 /L /NJH /NJS /NP /NS

yields

D:\Users\me\test\source\
         *EXTRA Datei                  only_in_source2.txt
           Neue Datei                  only_in_source.txt

where lines starting with a * denote files only in source2 (independent of the OS language), and other lines denote files only in source.

The options suppress various output items, and /L takes care that differences are listed only, not copied.

Solution 2

This Powershell script does what you want.

$fso = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -path C:\Temp\Source
$fsoBU = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -path C:\Temp\Source2
Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $fso -DifferenceObject $fsoBU

That, and several other options, are discussed here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3804109/what-is-the-best-way-to-compare-2-folder-trees-on-windows

Comments

[NotepadPlusPlus PRO]

thanks, I cannot use Powershell. Really appreciate your answer though.

[Doug Deden]

Why can you not use Powershell?

[NotepadPlusPlus PRO]

Thanks. This is exactly what I was looking for.

[antonio]

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