Scanning inside orphan folders

[pbb]

Hi,

I do a lot of comparing on FTP sites. So scanning the contents of many folders can take a long time.

Now I noticed that Beyond Compare reads the contents of subfolders, even though the folder exists only on one side of the comparison. Why is it doing this? Since the folder exists only on one side, it is already obvious that all files inside it, also only exist on one side.

Is there a way to disable this? I wish that only the folders that exist on both side, are scanned to see if any of the underlying files or folders are different/missing. Folders that only exist on one side, can be marked as orphans, without scanning their contents. And then if I myself click to open the folder, then the contents can be scanned to show what is inside.

[Aaron]

Hello,

The folders are scanned/built based on the Session Settings -> Handling tab. The Orphans are included in the scan if they are subfolders, as things like Filters are applied. "Automatically scan top-level orphan subfolders" is disabled by default, but could also be enabled.

[b.steffen]

I wish that only the folders that exist on both side, are scanned to see if any of the underlying files or folders are different/missing. Folders that only exist on one side, can be marked as orphans, without scanning their contents. And then if I myself click to open the folder, then the contents can be scanned to show what is inside.

I second this and mark it as [WISH]

[pbb]

Sorry, I don't think I completely understand your answer Aaron. "Automatically scan top-level orphan subfolders" is still disabled on my sessions. And when I disable "Automatically scan subfolders in background", then no folder contents are compared at all.

Am I missing something? Is there any reason why content in orphan folders should be scanned?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Sorry for the confusion. The Automatically scan subfolders option is enabled by default to allow for the scan/comparison to run automatically; it could be disabled to then allow for a more manual selection of specific subfolders, or only on expanded contents (with our Expand or Expand All commands).

The top-level command is disabled by default. Enabling it would also include top-level orphans (the opposite of what you are looking for).

The content of Orphan within folders is 'built', since we need to apply filters and folder coloring for items that are aligned. It isn't running a comparison unless two items are aligned left to right. Items inherit the coloring of the subitems within them; if an item contains an orphan folder, we would still need to build it to determine if that folder has items not excluded by filtering.

[pbb]

Hmmm I think I still need more help.

You say "The content of Orphan within folders is 'built', since we need to apply [...] folder coloring for items that are aligned." But you already know the required color without comparing the contents, right? The color can only be blue for "Orphan". Or am I misunderstanding?

And do filters need to be applied for items within a unopened folder? The only use for filters on unopened folders, as far as I can see, is the indicator for the number of bytes within the folder. And this is not so very interesting for orphan folders. All other filters only apply to file operations like copy or delete, not for comparison.

All in all, I would really like an option to turn off automatic scanning of orphan folders.

[Chris]

As Aaron said, if "Automatically scan top-level orphan subfolders" is unchecked, which is the default setting, then Beyond Compare should not read the contents of top-level orphan subfolders.

Specific to FTP servers, if you turn on recursive directory listings (off by default), then it's possible the FTP server will return the listing for top-level orphans. To check the setting, open "Tools > Profiles". Select the profile that matches your server. Go to the Listings tab. Make sure "Recursive [-R]" is unchecked.

[pbb]

Ah yes, I see now that that option works as I want it to, except disabling it only works for top-level orphan folders.

Would it be possible to have an option to disable scanning any orphan folder?

[Aaron]

Hello,

Not really. Each folder color is represented by the items within. If we do not scan an interior item (for example, due to a read error or lack of permissions), then that unscanned item is yellow. All parent items must now also be yellow since we have undetermined items within. If we had an option to not scan Orphans as sub items, then any folder containing an orphan folder at any level would be yellow/unscanned until the items were expanded.

An orphan folder might have Orphan items, or it might be empty. Either way, we would need to look inside to verify and then give it an appropriate status color (or, in some cases, remove it from view if it is empty).