Folder Diff

  1. Scanned
  2. Excluded
  3. Bold Dot: File has a newer modification date. Also, both compared files exist but the content is different.
  4. Dot: File or folder exists.
  5. None: File or folder doesn't exist.
  6. “Shadow diff” completed indicator.
  7. “Binary diff” completed indicator.

“Shadow diff” and “Binary diff”

The folder diff involves two steps: the first “Shadow diff” and the second “Binary diff”. In the first step “shadow diff”, DiffFork scans folders and do a fast inaccurate compare to find out the initial different items (files and folders). And then, in the second step “binary diff”, items marked as SAME in the previous step are compared again byte for byte for accurate results.

Only items marked as DIFFERENT will be displayed

DiffFork displays differences only. Items with the same content will be hidden.

Differences include:

How to read the results

There are two columns on the left of the item, which represent the diff results. The first column is for the left folder, and the second column is for the right folder.

The meaning of the icons:

Diff text files

Double click the listed item to open a new text diff window.

Instant results display

When DiffFork scans folders and does the diffing, the results will be displayed as soon as possible when the underlying data is available. You don't have to wait until the whole process is completed.