filecmp.dircmp

class filecmp.dircmp(a, b, ignore=None, hide=None)

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

The dircmp class compares files by doing shallow comparisons as described for filecmp.cmp().

The dircmp class provides the following methods:

report()

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

report_partial_closure()

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

report_full_closure()

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

The dircmp class 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.

left

The directory a.

right

The directory b.

left_list

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

right_list

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

common

Files and subdirectories in both a and b.

left_only

Files and subdirectories only in a.

right_only

Files and subdirectories only in b.

common_dirs

Subdirectories in both a and b.

common_files

Files in both a and b.

common_funny

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

same_files

Files which are identical in both a and b, using the class’s file comparison operator.

diff_files

Files which are in both a and b, whose contents differ according to the class’s file comparison operator.

funny_files

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

subdirs

A dictionary mapping names in common_dirs to dircmp objects.