Find duplicates

The Find duplicates mode may be used to search for duplicate files in specified folders.  These may be located on the local system or in files specified to be opened from FTP paths.  Paths to be searched may be specified by any of the following methods:

The Find duplicates mode searches through folders the user specifies to do two things:

1. Discover any files inside the specified folders

2. Compare the files against each other to determine which files are duplicates of others in the same search set.

Users configure the search by setting the parameters below the search target list.  Searches are created by adding folders to search, selecting criteria for matching files, specifying files/folders to exclude from the search and selecting other special properties to ignore.

Once the search has finished the results are shown in the Output Window. Duplicates are listed by groups and each group has a separate listing of all duplicate files in the group. Each duplicate file entry contains pertinent file metrics (path, size, date, modified time, etc.).  Users can interact with the duplicate file list to delete or rename these files. In addition to this users may interact with the file listing through context menu commands to further narrow the search results.

Options that refine the focus of the primary options are displayed to the right when an option has focus.  Each entry is enabled using the check box next to its name.  When a box is checked, that criteria is used in the search.  Each criterion has options that help control its specificity.  

When a duplicate option is selected, its associated options are then displayed on the right.  Users must select Name, Size or Content in order to execute a search. Name is selected by default.  The following options and their associated settings are available:

If the Search subdirectories option is not selected, the search will be limited to the top level of the specified search folder(s).  If Ignore hidden subdirectories is selected, any hidden folders in the target folder(s) will be skipped during the search.

Ignore options

Ignore options provide the user with options for specifying files and folders to skip in the search. The following options are available:

Include file types

Here the user specifies a list of specific files and/or file filters to which the search should be limited.  For example,  “*.tmp” means the search would skip any file without the .tmp extension.  File names and wildcards are entered in the edit box.  Multiple items may be defined and must be delimited by semicolons.

Exclude file types

Here the user specifies a list of specific files and/or file filters to exclude from the search.  For example,  “*.tmp” means the search would skip any file with the .tmp extension.  File names and wildcards are entered in the edit box.  Multiple items may be defined and must be delimited by semicolons. For example, "*.tmp; *.tar" (without quotes).

Exclude folders

Here the user specifies a list of specific folders and/or folder filters to exclude from the search.  For example, if “Folder1” is in the search folder it would be skipped.  If “*svn” were used, any folder with svn at the end of the name would be skipped. Folder names and wildcards are entered in the edit box.  Multiple items may be defined and must be delimited by semicolons.

Pressing the Start button will execute a search using the currently defined search parameters.  When a search is in progress, the Start button changes to a Pause button, which the user may press to temporarily suspend a search if necessary.  If desired, the user may press the Cancel button to completely halt a search.  When the find is executed, any existing output is cleared.