Difference of directories using 'diff' command in shell script without the details

Question

The diff command gives a list of details along with the difference of files/folders like this

dirs=`diff -aq new_dir/ old_dir`

gives:

Only in new_dir/: five Common subdirectories: new_dir/four and old_dir/four Common subdirectories: new_dir/one and old_dir/one

But I want only the folder/file name without the details that is: five,four and etc. That is without the details

I tried something like this:

dirs=diff -aq new_dir/ old_dir | grep 'Only in new_dir/: *'

I don't think this is the right way to get ONLY the difference of folders. Is there any better way to solve this?

My desired output:

five
seven 
six

and Not

Only in new_dir/: five 
Only in new_dir/: seven 
Only in new_dir/: six

Do you mean you don't want to see items which are Common in both? Or I am misunderstanding your question? Can you show your desired output? Also, do quote your dirs variable so that newlines are pressured. — jaypal singh
– jaypal singh, Commented Jul 8, 2013 at 16:53

jaypal singh · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-08 17:36:14Z

2

You can do something like:

dir=$(diff -aq new_dir/ old_dir | awk -F": " '/Only in new_dir/{print $2}')

answered Jul 8, 2013 at 17:36

jaypal singh

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twalberg · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-08 17:07:59Z

2

If you only want to know what (sub-)directories exist in dirA that don't exist in dirB, you can do this:

comm -23 <(cd dirA; find . -type d -print | sort) <(cd dirB; find . -type d -print | sort)

That doesn't consider the actual contents of directories though. You could adapt the above to find the reverse - sub directories in dirB but not dirA - by replacing -23 with -13; or get the common subdirectories with comm -12.

It would get more difficult if you cared about the files in each directory or the contents of those files, but it seems like that may not be the case here...

answered Jul 8, 2013 at 17:07

twalberg

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1 Comment

dora Over a year ago

Thanks for your answer. But @JS웃's is more relevant to me

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