Run a program when copying files

[DarrenD]

Is it possible to run a program when selecting "Copy To Right..."?

I want to chop a file into smaller files before doing the copy to the destination folder. This is because I have a 10MB file size limit on each transferred file. I thought if I used 2 sessions, the first with a file size filter <=10MB then I could copy these files without a problem. The second session would be using a file size filter >10MB at which point I would need to run my "conversion program".

This would then mean I cannot compare properly as the source will be MY_BIG_FILE.TXT and on the right I would have MY_BIG_FILE_PART_1.TXT, MY_BIG_FILE_PART_2.TXT, etc. I can live with that at the moment. The next step would then be to have another "conversion program" that joined the files together when I did "Copy To Left..."

Is this possible?
Thanks
Darren

[Chris]

It isn't possible to have "Copy to Right" automatically run a program before a copy. You can have BC3 call external programs under the "Actions > Open With" menu. Once you run your splitter from "Open With", you can use the "Copy to Right" command to copy your files.

Open With applications are configured in the "Open With" section of "Tools > Options".

[Aaron]

Another suggestion: you could investigate using a program such as WinRar to "rar" your files into separate, 10 meg, files that "unrar" as a single archive. Beyond Compare 3 supports reading from rar files for comparison purposes. You can test this with the trial of WinRar or trial of BC3 before purchase. I would suggest testing with some example/test files.

[DarrenD]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry for not posting back earlier as I had thought I would have got an e-mail saying "someone has posted...". I found your replies by manually checking the forum (I had forgotten I had posted - until I needed this problem fixing again and then I remembered).

I was expecting both of your answers really.

I notice that "Open with" allows "multiple instances" and "wait for previous instance to finish". If I have a session that shows all files >10MB then I can Ctrl-A and then "Open with" to run a script that splits the files into a "\LargeFiles" folder. Then another session that compares the small files should see me right.

Thanks
Darren

[DarrenD]

Just noticed the "Subscribe to this thread" under "Thread Tools". I would have hoped that was the default for threads where I post. I found the option in "My Profile" (Edit Options -> "Default Thread Subscription Mode") and it was set to "Do not subscribe". I've changed it now

[Aaron]

Thanks for the forum pointers, Darren. And it looks like you've gotten Open With to perform some custom work for you.

If you have any other questions (about the forum, or Open With), please let us know.