how to set up a bidirectional synchronization
view with New Folder Comparison
how to keep most recent versions of left or right files,
and keep any file existing only on one side
check and write results
Prerequisites
none
Step 1: Setting up the synchronization view
Open a new folder comparison view with
Document / Comparison/Merge / New Folder
Comparison or with Ctrl
+ M (Cmd + Shift + M on Mac OS,
Cmd + M being Minimize)
Enter your two folders paths (or URLs such as
ftp://myserver/), then press Enter
or one of the Validates URL buttons (
)
Change the comparison to a merge if necessary (so that
Edit mode
button is
pressed)
Change the comparison to two ways if necessary (so that
Swap 2 to 3 ways
button
is de-pressed)
Arrange so that both folders are considered as output
locations (change the small glasses
aside the
browse buttons to
)
Now that we are in this state, pressing the Write to result
button
in the
toolbar at any time would write the version that you chose for
each file.
Step 2: Keep most recent versions, keep any file
existing
In general you do not want to specify which version to keep
for individual files, rather you want to set rules applying to
all files. Here is how to do that:
Select the files that you want to synchronize (Ctrl +
A for all the files)
Click
to
solve with most recent files, then click
to keep
orphans. Note: if there are only identical files,
ECMerge shows a box telling the actions had no effects.
Step 3: check and write results
You can now write the result to your folders: ECMerge
will choose the appropriate files depending on file date and
presence.
To validate only the selected files, right click in the
selection and run Merge
result / Write...
To validate all the files, click the Write to result
button
in
the toolbar
In both cases, ECMerge shows a box with statistics
telling what will be done
You can now press Test... to show the log of what
would be done or Run... to actually act.