Author Topic: Virtual folder?  (Read 7391 times)

Ulfhednar

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Virtual folder?
« on: November 02, 2017, 11:58:19 »
I've been wondering about a way to visually compare multiple folders & contents.
My want is a virtual container/folder that allows me to delete entries in the source folders, without them being physically present in the same physical dir.
I want to virtually merge to show all folders/files so I can weed out the duplicates &/or older versions.
Windows virtual folders (search) is restricted to files AFAIK, so the search result compares only contents as a 'virtual folder'.
I tried MC search with wildcards etc but results weren't 100% as the search terms pre-define what I see & I could easily skip an entry if my search template wasn't perfect.

What can be done if:-
Multiple folders of similar name with contents of similar names + different timestamps/versions & duplicates in nested folders e.g.
Code: [Select]
<folder 1> 
file1.abc
file2a.abc
file3.abc

\<folder 1.2> 
file1.abc
file2a.abc
file3.abc

<folder 2> 
file1c.abc
file2c.abc
file3a.abc

<folder 3> 
file1b.abc
file2.abc
file3.abc

\<folder 3> 
file1b.abc
file2.abc
file3.abc

I could just copy everything into a common folder, but that isn't fool-proof & uses up a lot of disk space.
I could make lists of dirs & then merge these to review contents - but time-consuming.

Can MC be made to do this?
Any ideas or tools that allow me to do this kind of thing?  I haven't found a Comparison prog that does exactly what I want, great for specific file changes but for a fuzzy review of 5+ dirs & sub-dirs, not so much.


Mathias (Author)

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Re: Virtual folder?
« Reply #1 on: November 02, 2017, 12:44:51 »
MC do not have Virtual folders yet.

Some kind of virtual folders/devices is planned. And  it is very high up on my list.  However it is a very large feature. And I have not had time to design it and investigate everything that need to be changed to support it, yet.

Ulfhednar

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Re: Virtual folder?
« Reply #2 on: November 02, 2017, 15:12:10 »
OK thanks Mathias. 8)

I can see that there would be a lot of variables to consider.  I guess a plug-in could give the most flexible approach & would reduce the number of core changes to MC...?

Mathias (Author)

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Re: Virtual folder?
« Reply #3 on: November 02, 2017, 16:23:43 »
no,  core support for virtual folders is needed for some other features that are planned

Ulfhednar

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Re: Virtual folder?
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2017, 09:04:47 »
You will be busy then!!!
Looking forward to the new roadmap  :D