Beyond Compare 3 - Exclude Files with Name already existing in an another folder

Question

This is an example of my configuration:

• Source: I've 3 folders -> A, B, C
• Destination: Another folder -> DEST

I've a Session for each comparison:

• A -> DEST
• B -> DEST
• C -> DEST

My problem is simple, I've to filter on each comparison all file names that are present in the other 2 source folders. As an example we may suppose that these 3 folders contains only 9 files (obviously they are thousands):

• A containing files: 1.txt, 2.txt, 3.txt
• B containing files: 4.txt, 5.txt, 6.txt
• C containing files: 7.txt, 8.txt, 9.txt

I need to filter in the first comparison (A -> DEST) the files present in folder B and C (4.txt, 5.txt, ~ 9.txt) so I can see only if 1.txt or 2.txt or 3.txt are missing or modified. Obviously I don't want to spend all my day including the file names in Exclude Files Filter. I need it to automatically get all file names from the 2 remaining folders. Hoping if Regular Expressions could help.

Hope it is clear. Thank You

N

Answer 1

Sorry, Beyond Compare doesn't provide a good way to do this. It is only designed for two-way folder comparison. Many to one folder comparison (3 folders on left, one folder on right) is on the feature request list for a future version but it doesn't have a scheduled release date.

There are three possible workarounds:

1. Copy A to a temp folder, B to the same temp folder, then C to the temp folder. Then compare the temp folder to DEST. This workaround isn't feasible if you're working with large folders.

2. Edit > Expand All, Edit > Select All Files, then Actions > Exclude to filter out selected files from one of the comparisons. Then copy the filter from the Filters toolbar or the Name Filters tab of the Session Settings dialog and paste it into the other comparison. Name filters are stored as a single semicolon separated string with a length limit of 65,535 characters; this method won't work for very large numbers of filtered files.

3. If the file names are sequential in folder A, B, and C, enter filename filters that match on beginning digits. As an example, use the filter [a-c]*.* in the Filters toolbar to only compare filenames beginning with a, b, or c.