How to Compare Two Directories in Python?

To compare two directories in Python, you can recursively iterate over the files in each directory and compare their contents or attributes. Here’s an example implementation:

import os
import filecmp

def compare_directories(dir1, dir2):
    # Create a dircmp object to compare directories
    dcmp = filecmp.dircmp(dir1, dir2)

    # Retrieve the common files and subdirectories
    common_files = dcmp.common_files
    common_dirs = dcmp.common_dirs

    # Compare common files
    for file in common_files:
        file1_path = os.path.join(dir1, file)
        file2_path = os.path.join(dir2, file)
        if not filecmp.cmp(file1_path, file2_path, shallow=False):
            print(f"Different contents: {file}")

    # Recursively compare subdirectories
    for subdir in common_dirs:
        subdir1_path = os.path.join(dir1, subdir)
        subdir2_path = os.path.join(dir2, subdir)
        compare_directories(subdir1_path, subdir2_path)

    # Find missing files or directories
    for file in dcmp.left_only:
        print(f"Missing in dir2: {os.path.join(dir1, file)}")
    for file in dcmp.right_only:
        print(f"Missing in dir1: {os.path.join(dir2, file)}")

# Specify the paths of the directories to compare
dir1_path = '/path/to/dir1'
dir2_path = '/path/to/dir2'

# Compare the directories
compare_directories(dir1_path, dir2_path)

In this example, the compare_directories function takes two directory paths as input and compares the directories recursively. It uses the filecmp.dircmp class to create a directory comparison object (dcmp) that provides information about the common files, common subdirectories, and differences between the directories.

The function then compares the common files by iterating over common_files and using filecmp.cmp to compare the file contents. It prints a message for files with different contents.

Next, it recursively compares the common subdirectories by calling compare_directories on each pair of subdirectories.

Finally, the function finds missing files or directories by iterating over dcmp.left_only and dcmp.right_only and prints a message for each missing item.

Make sure to replace '/path/to/dir1' and '/path/to/dir2' with the actual paths of the directories you want to compare.