Feature Request: Show difference in file count compared to last scan

[alexanderdd]

Hello @shundhammer !

I am looking for a way to see if something went wrong in a directory, whether someone accidentally removed a lot of files, or a whole directory full of files, or accidentally moved a whole directory.

qdirstat already shows the number of files in a tree, neat!

• Would it be possible to add another column "difference in file count (compared to last scan)"?
• Or to implement a way to compare two cache files?
• Or, that would also help, "export current view as csv". (not the tree, that's not possible, and I read your opinion on csv in another issue.. still "current view" would be helpful)

(btw very useful program, it just helped me very efficiently to discover some files to delete)

[shundhammer]

I have a deja vu... I explained every single one of those before in great detail. ;-}

What you can easily do is store the result of a scan as a cache file and later load it in QDirStat, and start a new instance with a fresh scan; and then compare the two windows manually side by side.

Other than that, a tree diff is a user interface nightmare; because all kinds of things may have changed, including complete subtrees missing, complete subtrees being new, and every single data column changed anywhere. And of course a combination of all that: A subtree moved to another branch, and individual columns changed.

I do not know a single diff tool that can do a good job at displaying tree diffs.

[shundhammer]

Exporting to CSV

https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat/issues/182

Most importantly, see the section "Verdict: No" and "Why Not?" near the end of that discussion.

[shundhammer]

Comparing Disk Snapshots

https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat/issues/139

[shundhammer]

File Age Statistics

Depending on your specific use case, maybe the File Age Statistics (F4) view is useful for you:

https://github.com/shundhammer/qdirstat/issues/172

That shows you the files that were added or changed by month (for the last 13-24 months) and by years. If you simply want to know what's new during the last few months, this may be for you.

If you are interested in what was added or changed very recently, there is also "Discover" -> "Newest Files" in the menu. If that's your home directory, be advised that the Internet browsers with their gazillion files that they keep changing all the time will flood you with non-information, though.

[alexanderdd]

Thank you for taking the time to answer me. I would also have been ok with a link to a place where you already explained those things.

As I said, I understand the problems with tree diff, thats why I asked for "export current view as csv". But its not that important, I dont have the skills to turn such csv's into useful visuals anyway.

[shundhammer]

Nevermind; this question might easily come up again, and now we have a summary for all the different aspects.