bigext-tree py matches bigpy-dir py matches more output omitted =======================================diffs found files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\ch doc :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\ch doc files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\ch doc :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\ch doc files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\ch doc :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\ch doc files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\ch doc :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\ch doc files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\toc txt :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\toc txt unique files at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\examples\pp \system\filetools :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\examples\pp \system\filetools files differ at :\writing-backups\feb- - \dev\examples\pp \tools\visitor py :\users\mark\stuff\books\ \pp \dev\examples\pp \tools\visitor py this particular run indicates that 've added few examples and changed some files since the last backupif run immediately after backupnothing should show up on diffall radar except for any files that cannot be copied in general this global comparison can take few minutes it performs byte-for-byte comparisons of all files and screenshotsthe examples treeand morebut it' an accurate and complete verification given that this book development tree contained many filesa more manual verification procedure without python' help would be utterly impossible after writing this scripti also started using it to verify full automated backups of my laptops onto an external hard-drive device to do soi run the cpall copy script we wrote earlier in the preceding section of this and then the comparison script developed here to check results and get list of files that didn' copy correctly the last time did thisthis procedure copied and compared , files and , directories in gb of space--not the sort of task that lends itself to manual laborhere are the magic incantations on my windows laptop :is partition on my external hard driveand you shouldn' be surprised if each of these commands runs for half an hour or more on currently common hardware drag-and-drop copy takes at least as long (assuming it works at all!) :\system\filetoolscpall py : : :\copy-log txt :\system\filetoolsdiffall py : : :\diff-log txt reporting differences and other ideas finallyit' worth noting that this script still only detects differences in the tree but does not give any further details about individual file differences in factit simply loads and compares the binary contents of corresponding files with string comparisons it' simple yes/no result comparing directory trees