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<html><head><title>Chapter 3. Directory Comparison and Merge with KDiff3</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="help:/common/kde-default.css" type="text/css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.67.2"><meta name="keywords" content="KDE, kdeextragear, kdiff3, diff, merge, CVS, triplediff, compare, files, directories, version control, three-way-merge, in-line-differences, synchronise, kpart, kio, networktransparent, editor, white space, comments"><link rel="start" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The KDiff3 Handbook"><link rel="prev" href="preprocessors.html" title="Preprocessor Commands"><link rel="next" href="startingdirmerge.html" title="Starting Directory Comparison Or Merge"><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><meta name="GENERATOR" content="KDE XSL Stylesheet V1.13 using libxslt"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div style="background-image: url(help:/common/top-middle.png); width: 100%; height: 131px;"><div style="position: absolute; right: 0px;"><img src="help:/common/top-right-konqueror.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div style="position: absolute; top: 25px; right: 100px; text-align: right; font-size: xx-large; font-weight: bold; text-shadow: #fff 0px 0px 5px; color: #444">Directory Comparison and Merge with <span class="application">KDiff3</span></div></div><div style="margin-top: 20px; background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="preprocessors.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="startingdirmerge.html">Next</a></div><div class="navCenter"> </div></div><div class="chapter" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="dirmerge"></a>Chapter 3. Directory Comparison and Merge with <span class="application">KDiff3</span></h2></div></div></div><div class="sect1" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="dirmergeintro"></a>Introduction into Directory Comparison and Merge</h2></div></div></div><p>
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Often programmers must modify many files in a directory to achieve their
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purpose. For this <span class="application">KDiff3</span> also lets you compare and merge complete directories
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recursively!
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</p><p>
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Even though comparing and merging directories seems to be quite obvious,
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there are several details that you should know about. Most important is of
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course the fact that now many files might be affected by each operation.
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If you don't have backups of your original data, then it can be very hard
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or even impossible to return to the original state. So before starting a merge,
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make sure that your data is safe, and going back is possible. If you make
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an archive or use some version control system is your decision, but even
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experienced programmers and integrators need the old sources now and then.
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And note that even though I (the author of <span class="application">KDiff3</span>) try to do my best, I can't
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guarantee that there are no bugs. According to the GNU-GPL there is NO WARRANTY
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whatsoever for this program. So be humble and always keep in mind:
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</p><div class="blockquote"><blockquote class="blockquote"><p>
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<span class="emphasis"><em>To err is human, but to really mess things up you need a computer.</em></span>
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</p></blockquote></div><p>
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So this is what this program can do for you: <span class="application">KDiff3</span> ...
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</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul type="disc"><li><p>... reads and compares two or three directories recursively,</p></li><li><p>... takes special care of symbolic links,</p></li><li><p>... lets you browse files on mouse double click,</p></li><li><p>... for each item proposes a merge operation, which you can change
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before starting the directory merge,</p></li><li><p>... lets you simulate the merge and lists the actions that would
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take place, without actually doing them,</p></li><li><p>... lets you really do the merge, and lets you interact whenever
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manual interaction is needed,</p></li><li><p>... lets you run the selected operation for all items (key F7) or the selected item (key F6),</p></li><li><p>... lets you continue the merge after manual interaction with key F7,</p></li><li><p>... optionally creates backups, with the ".orig" extension,</p></li><li><p>...</p></li></ul></div></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-top: 20px; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div style="position: absolute; left: 20px;"><a accesskey="p" href="preprocessors.html">Prev</a></div><div style="position: absolute; right: 20px;"><a accesskey="n" href="startingdirmerge.html">Next</a></div><div align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></div></div><div style="background-color: #white; color: black; margin-left: 20px; margin-right: 20px;"><div class="navLeft">Preprocessor Commands </div><div class="navRight"> Starting Directory Comparison Or Merge</div><div class="navCenter"><a accesskey="u" href="index.html">Up</a></div></div><br><br><div class="bannerBottom" style="background-image: url(help:/common/bottom-middle.png); background-repeat: x-repeat; width: 100%; height: 100px; bottom:0px;"><div class="BannerBottomRight"><img src="help:/common/bottom-right.png" style="margin: 0px" alt=""></div><div class="bannerBottomLeft"><img src="help:/common/bottom-left.png" style="margin: 0px;" alt=""></div><div id="comments" style="position:relative; top: 5px; left: 1em; height:85px; width: 50%; color: #cfe1f6"><p>Would you like to make a comment or contribute an update to this page?<br>
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Send feedback to the <a href="mailto:kde-docs@kdemail.net" style="background:transparent; color:#cfe1f6; text-decoration: underline;">KDE Docs Team</a></p></div></div></body></html>
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