Folder Compare Settings:  Comparison Criteria

Session >  Session Settings >  Comparison

These settings control what is considered a difference in a Folder Compare session.

Quick tests

These comparison tests can be performed simply by reading directories and are much quicker than tests that require reading individual files.

Compare file size

Marks files as different if file sizes differ.

Compare timestamps

Compares files' date and time last modified.  Timestamps must differ by more seconds than the Tolerance to be considered mismatches.

Ignore daylight saving difference ignores exact hour differences.  This is useful for dealing with the way that different file systems handle Daylight Savings Time.

Ignore timezone differences ignores timestamp differences that are multiples of an exact hour.

Compare file attributes

Archive compares files' archive attribute.  Since merely copying a file can change its archive attribute, you should normally disable this option.

System compares files' system attribute.

Hidden compares files' hidden attribute.

Read-only compares files' read-only attribute.

Tests that require reading files

Compare contents

Enables size or content-related comparisons.

CRC comparison compares CRC values.  A CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) is a numeric representation of the contents of a file.  If the CRCs of two files are different, then the contents of those files must be different.  If the CRCs match, then it is likely (but not certain) that the contents match.

Binary comparison compares files byte-by-byte.

Rules-based comparison compares files based on their file format associations.  Allows you to ignore differences in line endings, whitespace, or source code comments.

Enable Skip if quick tests indicate files are the same when you only want to perform the slower, more thorough tests when timestamps are different.

Compare versions

Compares version information, typically stored in application files (.exe, .dll, .ocx, etc).

Override quick test results

If enabled, a content comparison that finds identical contents will show the files as matching, even though there are differences in timestamps or other quick tests.