11.5.1 The dircmp class

Python 2.5

11.5.1 The dircmp class

dircmp instances are built using this constructor:

Construct a new directory comparison object, to compare the directories a and b. ignore is a list of names to ignore, and defaults to ['RCS', 'CVS', 'tags']. hide is a list of names to hide, and defaults to [os.curdir, os.pardir].

The dircmp class provides the following methods:

Print (to sys.stdout) a comparison between a and b.

Print a comparison between a and b and common immediate subdirectories.

Print a comparison between a and b and common subdirectories (recursively).

The dircmp offers a number of interesting attributes that may be used to get various bits of information about the directory trees being compared.

Note that via __getattr__() hooks, all attributes are computed lazily, so there is no speed penalty if only those attributes which are lightweight to compute are used.

Files and subdirectories in a, filtered by hide and ignore.

Files and subdirectories in b, filtered by hide and ignore.

Files and subdirectories in both a and b.

Files and subdirectories only in a.

Files and subdirectories only in b.

Subdirectories in both a and b.

Files in both a and b

Names in both a and b, such that the type differs between the directories, or names for which os.stat() reports an error.

Files which are identical in both a and b.

Files which are in both a and b, whose contents differ.

Files which are in both a and b, but could not be compared.

A dictionary mapping names in common_dirs to dircmp objects.
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