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Diffstat (limited to 'FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html')
| -rwxr-xr-x | FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html | 94 |
1 files changed, 52 insertions, 42 deletions
diff --git a/FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html b/FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html index ee24cd87..ece7d67f 100755 --- a/FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html +++ b/FreeFileSync/Build/Help/html/comparison-settings.html @@ -8,46 +8,24 @@ <body> <h1>Comparison Settings</h1> - <p> <img src="../images/comparison-settings.png" alt="Comparison settings dialog"> <br><br> </p> - <h2>Symbolic Link Handling</h2> - + <h2>Comparison variants</h2> <p> - FreeFileSync lets you choose to include symbolic links (also called symlinks or soft links) - when scanning directories rather than skipping over them. When included, you can select between two ways to handle them: + When comparing two folders, FreeFileSync analyses the <b>paths relative to the left and right base folders</b> of the contained files. + If the relative path matches, FreeFileSync decides how the file pair is categorized by considering the selected comparison variant: </p> - - <ol> - <li><b>Follow:</b> - Treat symbolic links like the object they are pointing to. Links - pointing to directories are traversed like ordinary directories and - the target of each link is copied during synchronization.<br> - - <li><b>Direct:</b> - Evaluate the symbolic link object - directly. Symbolic links will be shown as separate entities. - Links pointing to directories are not traversed and the link object - is copied directly during synchronization. - </ol> - <br> - - <div class="bluebox"> - <b>Note</b> - <ul style="margin: 0"> - <li>Under Windows the symbolic link options apply to symbolic links, volume mount points and NTFS junction points. - <li>Copying symbolic links requires FreeFileSync to be started with administrator rights. - </ul> - </div> - <br> - - <h2>I. Compare by file time and size</h2> + + <b>I. Compare by <i>File time and size</i></b> <p> - This variant considers two files with the same name as equal when both modification - time <b>and</b> file size match. The following categories are distinguished: + This variant considers two files equal when both <b>modification time and file size</b> match. + It should be selected when synchronizing files with a backup location. + Whenever a file is changed, its file modification time is also updated. + Therefore a compare by <i>File Time and size</i> will detect all files that should be synchronized. + The following categories are distinguished: </p> <ol style="list-style: upper-roman"> <li><b>file exists on one side only</b> @@ -72,11 +50,14 @@ </ol> <br> - <h2>II. Compare by file content</h2> + <b>II. Compare by <i>File content</i></b> <p> - Two files with the same name are marked as equal if and only if they have - the same content. This option is more useful for consistency checks - rather than backup operations since a bitwise comparison can be slow. + Two files are marked as equal if they have <b>identical content</b>. + This variant should be selected when doing consistency checks to see if the files on both sides are bit-wise identical. + Naturally it is the slowest of all comparison variants, so its usefulness for the purpose of synchronization is limited. + If used for synchronization, it can serve as a fallback when modification times are not reliable: for example + certain mobile phones and legacy FTP servers do not preserve modification times, so the only way to detect different files when the + file sizes are the same is by reading their content. </p> <ol style="list-style: upper-roman"> <li><b>file exists on one side only</b> @@ -92,13 +73,12 @@ </ul> </ol> <br> - - <h2>III. Compare by file size</h2> + + <b>III. Compare by <i>File size</i></b> <p> - Two files with the same name are considered equal if they have - the same file size. - Since it's possible for files with the same size to have different content, this variant should only be used when file modification times are not - available or reliable, e.g. in certain MTP and FTP synchronization scenarios. + Two files are considered equal if they have the <b>same file size</b>. + Since it's possible for files that have the same size to have different content, this variant should only be used when file modification times are not + available or reliable, e.g. in certain MTP and FTP synchronization scenarios, and where a compare by content would be too slow. </p> <ol style="list-style: upper-roman"> <li><b>file exists on one side only</b> @@ -113,5 +93,35 @@ <li>different size </ul> </ol> + <br> + + <h2>Symbolic Link Handling</h2> + <p> + FreeFileSync lets you choose to include symbolic links (also called symlinks or soft links) + when scanning directories rather than skipping over them. When included, you can select between two ways to handle them: + </p> + + <ol> + <li><b>Follow:</b> + Treat symbolic links like the object they are pointing to. Links + pointing to directories are traversed like ordinary directories and + the target of each link is copied during synchronization.<br> + + <li><b>Direct:</b> + Evaluate the symbolic link object + directly. Symbolic links will be shown as separate entities. + Links pointing to directories are not traversed and the link object + is copied directly during synchronization. + </ol> + <br> + + <div class="bluebox"> + <b>Note</b> + <ul style="margin: 0"> + <li>Under Windows the symbolic link options apply to symbolic links, volume mount points and NTFS junction points. + <li>Copying symbolic links requires FreeFileSync to be started with administrator rights. + </ul> + </div> + </body> </html>
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