FreeFileSync Open Source File Synchronization

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FreeFileSync User Manual:
#Quick Start Command Line Comparison Settings Daylight Saving Time Exclude Files Expert Settings External Applications Macros Performance RealTimeSync RTS: Run as Service Schedule Batch Jobs Scripting Synchronization Settings (S)FTP Setup Tips and Tricks Variable Drive Letters Versioning Volume Shadow Copy

External Applications

By default, when you double-click a row in the main dialog, FreeFileSync opens the operating system's file browser:
Windows:explorer.exe /select, %local_path% & exit 0
macOS: open -R %local_path%
Linux: xdg-open "$(dirname %local_path%)"
To customize this behavior or integrate other external applications into FreeFileSync, go to Menu → Tools → Options → Customize context menu and add or replace a command.

You can quickly access all entries by pressing the corresponding numeric keys 0–9 or through the context menu (right-click). The first entry can also be executed by double-clicking on an item.

In addition to regular macros, the following special macros are available:
Macro Description
%item_path%
 Full file or folder path
%local_path%
 Creates a temporary local copy for files on SFTP and MTP storage. Otherwise identical to %item_path% for local files and network shares.
%item_name%
 File or folder name
%parent_path%
 Parent folder path

  • To refer to the item on the opposite side, append "2" to the macro name:
    %item_path2%, %local_path2%, %item_name2%, %parent_path2%.
  • To generate a list of all selected items (separated by space), append "s" to the macro name:
    %item_paths%, %local_paths%, %item_names%, %parent_paths%.

Examples:

  • Launch a file content comparison tool: Windows: WinMerge
    "C:\Program Files (x86)\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe" %local_path% %local_path2%

    macOS: opendiff (requires Xcode)
    opendiff %local_path% %local_path2%

    Ubuntu: kompare (sudo apt install kompare)
    kompare %local_path% %local_path2%

  • Show file in Windows Explorer:
    explorer.exe /select, %local_path% & exit 0
    Note
    Explorer.exe doesn't set an exit code, but FreeFileSync will show an error message if it doesn't find exit code = 0 ("Success"). To mitigate, append (&) command exit 0 to set the exit code explicitly.

  • Open command prompt for the selected item:
    start cmd.exe /k cd /D %parent_path%
    Note
    Since FreeFileSync doesn't automatically show a console window, start is used to open one. cmd.exe /k runs the following command without immediately exiting the console. cd navigates to the directory, even if it's on a different volume (/D).

  • Copy the item path to the clipboard (alternative to using CTRL + C)
    echo %item_path%| clip

  • Write the list of selected file paths to a text file:
    echo %item_path% >> %csidl_Desktop%\file_list.txt

  • Preview files using Quick Look on macOS:
    qlmanage -p %local_path%

  • Pass a list of selected files to a script as command line arguments:
    C:\my-script.cmd %local_paths%