Match files by same folder / directory
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2011 11:16 pm
For my monthly cleanup of daily backups, I search within the monthly folder for equal files. I always keep the first and the last copy of a file for periods in which it hasn't changed. So the exact copies are removed from the daily subfolders as long as the copy was already there in a "before" daily subfolder and there will be one in an "after" daily subfolder. These copies all have the Same Filename, which is one of the search match criteria.
I also have each file duplicated in the daily subfolders. Source files on which the daily data files are based are also there and sometimes these do change. Then these files are not duplicate within that daily subfolder and perhaps for a varying period of time, until I do not longer need a backup version in the working folder which is the source for the daily backups.
It would be very convenient if I could reduce all the duplicate files within daily folders by only running Duplicate Cleaner once for a monthly (or even yearly) folder. These files of course do not have the same file name, but they always are in the same folder. So it would be very convenient if the search match criteria would be extenden by a Same Folder option.
There might also be a more flexible version of the Same Folder option, which would allow matches to be found across daily backup folders, but restricted to files within monthly backup folders, excluding across yearly backup folders comparisons. This would be some kind of Number of levels/subfolders option which would be set to 2 in this case. Perhaps this number of levels could be made relative to either the top or bottom level of selected folders for the search. In this case, I would work on the 2 levels from the bottom, the deepest path: daily and monthly backups. I'm not sure if it makes sense to work the other way: search for matches only in the two top levels, being yearly and monthly backups, and excluding comparisons to any folders below that level. This could perhaps also or already be managed by exluding a relative path (and its subfolders) from the search folders.
I also have each file duplicated in the daily subfolders. Source files on which the daily data files are based are also there and sometimes these do change. Then these files are not duplicate within that daily subfolder and perhaps for a varying period of time, until I do not longer need a backup version in the working folder which is the source for the daily backups.
It would be very convenient if I could reduce all the duplicate files within daily folders by only running Duplicate Cleaner once for a monthly (or even yearly) folder. These files of course do not have the same file name, but they always are in the same folder. So it would be very convenient if the search match criteria would be extenden by a Same Folder option.
There might also be a more flexible version of the Same Folder option, which would allow matches to be found across daily backup folders, but restricted to files within monthly backup folders, excluding across yearly backup folders comparisons. This would be some kind of Number of levels/subfolders option which would be set to 2 in this case. Perhaps this number of levels could be made relative to either the top or bottom level of selected folders for the search. In this case, I would work on the 2 levels from the bottom, the deepest path: daily and monthly backups. I'm not sure if it makes sense to work the other way: search for matches only in the two top levels, being yearly and monthly backups, and excluding comparisons to any folders below that level. This could perhaps also or already be managed by exluding a relative path (and its subfolders) from the search folders.