Compare directory with sub-folders - powershell

Question

I have been have a tough time with this but I am trying to do a compare between two servers and have them compare all of the files from one server to the other. Even inside the subfolders. So far I've gotten it to compare the folder names and files but can't get it to go inside the folders and compare the contents. Here's a few things I've tried.
$A = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -path $Path
$B = Get-ChildItem -Recurse -path $PAth1
Compare-Object -ReferenceObject $A -DifferenceObject $B -PassThru
This is what I started with and it works the best but still doesn't go inside the sub-folders. I also tried to use foreach statements with Arrays to store the content in an array and compare the arrays but this doesn't seem to be working at all.
$FileDirectoryA = "Path"
$FileDirectoryC = "path"
$A = foreach($folderA in Get-ChildItem $fileDirectoryA)
{
$FolderA
}
$B = foreach($FileA in Get-ChildItem $ArrayA)
{
$FileA
}
$C = foreach($folderC in Get-ChildItem $fileDirectoryC)
{
$FolderC
}
$D = foreach($FileC in Get-ChildItem $ArrayC)
{
$FileC
}
Compare-Object $B $D
When I try and just do a
Compare-Object $Path $Path2
It errors on all of the folders saying permission denied which doesn't make much sense to me.
Thanks,
Andrew

Answer 1

It should work if you specify the property to compare :
$a = ls c:\temp\ -rec
$b = icm -computername $servername -scriptblock{ls c:\temp\ -rec}
compare $a $b -Property fullname
A more reliable way might be to use robocopy
robocopy.exe \\serverA\Folder1 \\serverB\Folder2 /e /l /log:c:\temp\dif.txt

Answer 2

I think this powershell script https://github.com/oflisback/dirdiff addresses your problem, it scans two directories and reports differences:
PS C:\> dirdiff.ps1 C:\dir1 C:\dir2
One identical file:
.\identical.txt
One file only present in C:\dir1:
.\newdir1.txt
2 files only present in C:\dir2:
.\newdir2.txt
.\newdir\newfilesdir2.txt
One file present in both directories and has different content:
.\modified.bin
The script is based on this gist so credit to cchamberlein.

Answer 3

Get-ChildItem $Source -Recurse | ForEach-Object{
$Dest = Join-Path $Destination $_.FullName.Substring($Source.Length)
$bool = Test-Path $Dest
if(!$bool){
#Write of some thing here to indicate difference
}
}

Answer 4

This should give you a reasonable comparison I think. You can use regex on the return values to rebuild the original filepaths if you so desire.
$Dir1="C:\Test"
$Dir2="C:\Test2"
$A=(Get-ChildItem $Dir1 -Recurse).VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir1),""
$B=(Get-ChildItem $Dir2 -Recurse).VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir2),""
Compare-Object $A $B
This reuslts in an output like...
InputObject SideIndicator
----------- -------------
\New folder\temp.txt =>
\temp.txt <=
\New folder\New folder\temp.txt <=
Update
I think should do everything you are looking for. You'll need to change the $Dir1 and $Dir2 values. It's likely over-complicated but it does appear to work.
$Dir1="C:\Test"
$Dir2="C:\Test2"
$Items1=Get-ChildItem $Dir1 -Recurse
$Items2=Get-ChildItem $Dir2 -Recurse
$A=$Items1.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir1),""
$B=$Items2.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir2),""
$Exist_Diff=Compare-Object $A $B
$Exist_Diff | %{
$Current_Item=$_.InputObject
if($_.SideIdicator -eq "<="){
Write-Host "No file equivilent to $Dir1$Current_Item found in $Dir2"
}else{
Write-Host "No file equivilent to $Dir2$Current_Item found in $Dir1"
}
}
$Items1 | %{
if ($Exist_Diff.InputObject -notcontains ($_.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir1),""))
{
$MatchingFile=[string]$_.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir1),$Dir2
try{if(Test-Path $MatchingFile)
{
if((Get-Item $MatchingFile).length -gt $_.Length)
{
Write-host $_.fullname "is larger than" $MatchingFile
}
}}catch{}
}
}
$Items2 | %{
if ($Exist_Diff.InputObject -notcontains ($_.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir1),""))
{
$MatchingFile=[string]$_.VersionInfo.Filename -replace [regex]::Escape($Dir2),$Dir1
try{if(Test-Path $MatchingFile)
{
if((Get-Item $MatchingFile).length -gt $_.Length)
{
Write-host $_.fullname "is larger than" $MatchingFile
}
}}catch{}
}
}