Argh!!! - I was so busy tracking and debugging the difference detection that I failed to notice the actual file paths/names shown were incorrect! (I did say wanted to test it more!) - corrected - for above example output is now:

1 2026-09-19   3:12:22        5120 R:\TST\TST1.TXT
2-2026-09-19   3:12:44        5120 R:\TST\SUB1\TST1.TXT
312026-09-19   3:13:54        5120 R:\TST\SUB2\TST1.TXT
4-2026-09-19   3:14:24        5120 R:\TST\SUB3\TST1.TXT
512026-09-19   3:14:46        5120 R:\TST\SUB4\TST1.TXT
6 2026-09-19   3:15:32        5120 R:\TST\TST2.DAT
7-2026-09-19   3:15:46        5120 R:\TST\SUB2\TST2.DAT
8-2026-09-19   3:15:58        5120 R:\TST\SUB3\TST2.DAT
9 2026-09-19   3:25:44        3072 R:\TST\TST4.BIN
1012026-09-19   3:27:10        3072 R:\TST\SUB1\TST4.BIN
1112026-09-19   3:27:30        3072 R:\TST\SUB2\TST4.BIN
1222026-09-19   3:28:12        3072 R:\TST\SUB3\TST4.BIN
1322026-09-19   3:28:24        3072 R:\TST\SUB4\TST4.BIN
14 2026-09-19   3:17:16        2048 R:\TST\SUB2\TST3.BIN
1512026-09-19   3:20:30        2048 R:\TST\SUB3\TST3.BIN
16-2026-09-19   3:19:46        2048 R:\TST\SUB4\TST3.BIN

As soon as I saw the thread title, I immediately throught back to my short time working on antivirus software. One of the things we did was to run a checksum on every file on the system, keeping a list of full path, datetime, size, and checksum. This way we had a basis to compare and repair any files that were modified by a virus. I think the norton utilities (and/or their competitor whose name I forget) had roughly the same capability. I'm not sure if your program has an output file like that, but it would be a tiny modification to just add the checksum on each line to what you posted. With your comparison, it could also be used as half a snapraid system: running it regularly, noting any differences, could notify users of any disk errors, even if the restore part of raid is missing.

I'm pretty sure the version I was using was just a batch script. It called a checksum utility, and with some sorting... you get the idea. But you're 95% there already without the extra utility baggage.

SiBurning wrote on 2026-09-20, 01:21:

As soon as I saw the thread title, I immediately throught back to my short time working on antivirus software. One of the things we did was to run a checksum on every file on the system, keeping a list of full path, datetime, size, and checksum. This way we had a basis to compare and repair any files that were modified by a virus. I think the norton utilities (and/or their competitor whose name I forget) had roughly the same capability. I'm not sure if your program has an output file like that, but it would be a tiny modification to just add the checksum on each line to what you posted. With your comparison, it could also be used as half a snapraid system: running it regularly, noting any differences, could notify users of any disk errors, even if the restore part of raid is missing.

Thanks, it would be quite trivial to add the CRC to the output (I might make it an option), but what you are describing seems like it would be better server by a
different program - SSF scans all files and reports those with same name, size and CRC - basically my way of quickly sorting through 100s of copies of a file spread out "everyware" - output does incude timestamp and size, making it easy to visually figure out "whats what" and where differences occur. - it only reports files which have the same name.

What you are describing sounds like it should output every file with all information (including CRC) - this allows easy detection of changed files.

I kinda already have a tool which does this, using a small(ish) completely printable file which looks like:

1>name {entering a subdirector}
2{14 printable chars}filename  {file information}
3....
4<[<...] {exiting subdir(s)}
5...  entries can repeat/nest ...

The 14 printable characters encode 84 bits (6 bits/char) which contain size, timestamp, CRC, flags

I use this to "fast" find a file on the system, detect oldest, newest, biggest, smallest, changed etc.

I've not wrapped it into a virus detector (probably won't - my old DOS systems are in my lab and never connect to the internet), but it certainly could be done!

Yes, a full tree list of every file, one per line, human readable. I don't think it should be tied to virus detection. This is more error or change detection, which you might use afterwards. Errors being either from a virus, hardware or software errors, hacking, or even your kid messing around. Or even just to know you purposely modified a file since last time, and maybe you need to back it up. It's definitely a different use case from yours, but so much of the require functionality is the same, it would be fairly trivial part-way towards building one tool given the other. Heck! What I'm talking about is trivial from scratch. just different use cases. In fact, you could use the output as input to the backend of your tool. Anyway, it just so reminded me of it.

OTOH, I can easily imagine people who need to detect duplicates might have the need for a list. If those files are editable, they might want to compare... I don't know, but I can see how people might want additional similar tools. You have to let need and demand be the guide.