Options to compare and write out *what would happen*, but otherwise take no action

[mfreedberg]

One thing we have been wrestling with is to find a simple way to determine that the source and targets are completely in sync, so that we know the backup is complete and up to date. Once that is the case, we can update our database record, update a help desk ticket, all kinds of things, but there is no simple way to run JUST a compare and output what would happen IF we did do the sync.

Is there a command line option to run in comparison mode only but silently, and then output to a file the status of the comparison, like the Statistics windows does, but in some format we can easily parse?

If not, I know that we would find that very useful, not sure if others would - but it would be a huge leg up to be able to verify the status of the comparison and how closely the source and target match. Including a list of file conflicts would be icing on the cake.

[Zenju]

You can start a sync via command line and check that the error code is 0, in which case you can be sure that everything is in sync. If the error code is 1, there are warnings, the most important being conflicts. These are always written to lastsyncs.log. If 2, there is some error that may need to be addressed.

See help file chapter "Command line" for details.

[mfreedberg]

You can start a sync via command line and check that the error code is 0, in which case you can be sure that everything is in sync. If the error code is 1, there are warnings, the most important being conflicts. These are always written to lastsyncs.log. If 2, there is some error that may need to be addressed.

See help file chapter "Command line" for details.

Zenju, understood, but the problem is that IF there are in fact still files outstanding, we have no way to know from that return code how much the delta is and if there are also conflicts.

What we need is something above and beyond that error code, we could really use a way to write out the results of the comparison ONLY, in some way we can parse and act on. I do not know of any way to do *just* a comparison and output a log file for that comparison, including all the statistics, but we are looking for a way to verify the state of the client's sync status in more detail than simply the return code.

We back up the directory into which we write the sync log, so that we have a server-based copy of your sync events and can do troubleshooting without needing the client system online, but that means that for EVERY backup, we exit with errors because FFS tries to back up the currently open log file -- so the error code is not of too much use to us because of how we are running FFS.

Any chance you might consider adding this as a feature? Just let us know if it is even a possibility...

Thank you!

[Zenju]

Comparing folders and outputting the result as a parseable log file via a batch job is too specific a scenario to be interesting for FFS in general. With regards to backing up the sync log, I suggest you exclude these files to avoid the associated error message. The default should always be an error-free sync run, and errors something worth investigating.

[KMA1973]

I just asked the same as mfreedberg in another topic.

Sorry, but I cannot understand why it is possible in GUI (2016 version) and not in command line.

Kind regards.

[addilapi]

I too would like to see this capability. Consider this scenario, I currently use Robocopy wrapped up in some custom PowerShell cmdlets in order to control various input settings and to do some other related work. This PowerShell cmdlet supports the -Whatif as well as -Confirm parameters and uses Robocopy's ability to log what would happen without making any changes. This lets us provide "Are you sure you want to perform this action on XXX files totalling XXGB? y/n" type prompt in the command line. It would be support great if FFS also supported this type of behavior since I might be able to replace my usage of Robocopy with FFS... FFS has a superior ability to detect file moves even if it is a bit behind in some other areas.