Bash script to compare remote directory's files using file size

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Tutorials > Operating Systems > Linux > Tips and Tricks

Here is a bash script that compares two remote directories and their subdirectories using file size to check for differences:

#!/bin/bash

# Set the hostnames and username for the two remote servers
hostname1="remote_server_1"
hostname2="remote_server_2"
username="remote_user"

# Set the paths to the directories on the two remote servers
dir1="/path/to/remote/directory/1"
dir2="/path/to/remote/directory/2"

# Use ssh to execute the 'find' command on each remote server and store the output in a local file
ssh $username@$hostname1 "find $dir1 -type f" > dir1_files.txt
ssh $username@$hostname2 "find $dir2 -type f" > dir2_files.txt

# Compare the two files line by line to check for differences
while read line1 <&3 && read line2 <&4; do
  # Get the file sizes for the current files
  size1=$(ssh $username@$hostname1 "stat -c %s $line1")
  size2=$(ssh $username@$hostname2 "stat -c %s $line2")

  # Compare the file sizes
  if [ $size1 -ne $size2 ]; then
    # The file sizes are different, so the files are different
    echo "$line1 and $line2 are different"
  fi
done 3<dir1_files.txt 4<dir2_files.txt

# Clean up by deleting the temporary files
rm dir1_files.txt
rm dir2_files.txt

This script uses the find command to list all of the files in the dir1 and dir2 directories on the two remote servers, and stores the output in local files dir1_files.txt and dir2_files.txt, respectively. It then uses a while loop to read the two files line by line and compare the file sizes for each pair of files. If the file sizes are different, it prints a message indicating that the files are different. Finally, it cleans up by deleting the temporary files.

Note that this script does not compare the contents of the files, only their sizes. If you want to compare the contents of the files, you can use the cmp command in a similar way as in the previous example.

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