Suggestion: Post-sync command conditioned on whether files were synced

[ravishahani]

As far as I can tell, there is no easy way to tell from a post-sync command whether any files were synced. If there was nothing to sync, the sync operation is considered successful.

It would be great if there was a way to run a different command based on whether any files were synced, for example so I could not create a new archive of the synced files if no files were synced, since the archive contents would be identical.

If I am incorrect and there is a way to do this please let me know. As far as I understand the current implementation, I would need to find and parse the sync logfile to determine whether any files were synced.

[therube]

I don't know (?) if FFS sets %errorlevel%, but if it did... you might be able to check against that.


Pseudo-code:

grep -i "Items processed: 0 (0 bytes)" *.log > /dev/nul
if %errorlevel% == 0 goto nothinghappened
...

:nothinghappened
exit

[ravishahani]

Thanks for the response, therube. That is a nice thought, but based on the documentation and my observation, there is no errorlevel associated with this condition. FreeFileSync.exe returns with errorlevel 0 as long as execution was successful, regardless of whether any files were copied or not.

From the online manual:
Exit Codes
0 Synchronization completed successfully
1 Synchronization completed with warnings
2 Synchronization completed with errors
3 Synchronization was aborted

[xCSxXenon]

You could parse the log file to obtain the number of items and base the actions off that

[ravishahani]

Yes, parsing the log file has crossed my mind (and was suggested to me by Copilot). I would prefer not to do this since it is not a robust approach, e.g. I may not be aware of some corner cases in the log file format, or the format could change in a future release in a way that breaks my log processing code.

[Zenju]

I've added scripting support for the next FFS version!

Write sync statistics to stdout as JSON for .ffs_batch

Instead of having only the exit code to work with, all the relevant sync statistics are returned for scripts to evaluate: https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=scripting

FFS 14.6 Beta - Windows
FFS 14.6 Beta - Linux

[ravishahani]

Thanks Zenju, that looks great!

Is it recommended to install the beta on top of the existing version, uninstall and install the beta, or install the beta in a different folder? I am running 14.5 donation version right now.

[ravishahani]

I installed it in a separate folder for now in case I run into bugs and tried out the new scripting support. So far it seems to be working great! I will let you know if I find any bugs.

If I were to install this on top of the released 14.5 donation version would I retain the benefits of the donation version?

[xCSxXenon]

If I were to install this on top of the released 14.5 donation version would I retain the benefits of the donation version?

No, the donation edition files/flags/license is baked into your unique installer

[ravishahani]

T'hanks, xCSxXenon.

I installed the beta in a different folder, but it seems to have broken the 14.5 donation version. I guess I will just use the beta version unless I run into a blocking issue.