MacMost Now 148: Merging Folders

Gary Rosenzweig takes a look at three methods of merging files inside of folders. You can use Apple's FileMerge that comes with XCode, the 'ditto' command in Terminal or a variety of downloadable programs including File Synchronization.

Show notes: The link to download XCode is http://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode/. You can read all about the Terminal ditto command at this official help page: http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/man1/ditto.1.html. You can get File Synchronization here: http://nemesys2.dyndns.org:8080/.

Comments: 4 Responses to “MacMost Now 148: Merging Folders”

    srgb
    15 years ago

    Very informative and well presented. Just what I was looking for. Many thanks!

    Bob
    15 years ago

    But what if the files are the same name? The first two options don't work. And unfortunately I don't have enough hard drive space for the 3rd.

    Also what if the files have subfolders? And what if some of those subfolders have the same name, but different contents?

    Can't an app ask the system to look at two file structures, and merge the individual files in folders that share a name?

      15 years ago

      Not sure how detailed you can get, but in your situation you should also consider the manual route -- just do it by hand and make the decisions yourself. It might take longer, but it might be the only way to get the job done right.

    Bob
    15 years ago

    In my case, I have three folders (backups of music libraries). There are no duplicates within each folder, however when the folders merge there will be some. I am trying the terminal command, merging two of the three folders. It's taking forever, but seems to be working.

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