Recursive file/directory comparison

[In_Xanity]

This may be several feature requests, but it is all related, so let's start with one ticket. If the reviewing authority deems it necessary to file separate tickets, I will happily comply.

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I would like to see directory comparison and synchronized browsing combined into a routine which, upon invocation, would programmatically and thoroughly browse parallel directory structures on the local and remote sites compiling a list of differences for the entire structure. Direct comparison of directory dates would be abandoned, as directory dates are not preserved through FTP and the results can be misleading. Instead, highlighting of directories would be based upon comparison of the contents of the directories. Furthermore, directory highlighting would be carried up the directory structure, so that differences deep within the structure would be indicated to the user browsing at higher levels.

In conjunction with this feature, the existing directory listing filters could be extended to the recursive comparison routine, such that the user could customize the actions of the recursive comparison to ignore certain file types, directory names, etc., as the user sees fit. Theoretically, the current filter system could serve this purpose as any matches to the filters would be ignored. However, I would prefer to be able to choose to still view files and folders which I deem unnecessary to compare. To this end, the "Edit Filters" dialog could have the option associated with each filter to apply that filter only to comparison, or to both comparison and viewing (application to viewing but not comparison being pointless.)

Finally, the settings of all of these features could be saved on a per-site basis through the site manager, such that the user could assign custom filter sets to each site and automatically invoke these filter sets and/or recursive comparison upon connection to the site.

[Alexander Schuch]

For a related issue, see #8930.

[Tim Kosse]

Comparative search has been implemented in FileZilla 3.47