Feature: compare by content only in small files

Applications
1

Hi! Thank you for creating Meld, I’ve used it for years and find it an essential tool.

I often use it to sync very large folders and meld takes a very long time to run if I compare the content of large media files. I can compare by size only, but then small files where just one character changed are not detected.

What do you think about having a size threshold, so files below a size threshold are compared by content, and larger ones are compared only by their size?

Another option that I think programs like Kdenlive use (or used) is to compare size, beginning bytes, mid bytes and end bytes for media files.

Do you think one of these, or some other approach could be implemented to accelerate comparing folders with large files?

Thank you :slight_smile:

2

I think these would both be nice additions. My main concern with the adaptive approach is how to expose this option to the user in a way that makes sense, as it’s very much an “unbreak my application” choice.

Doing a start/middle/end comparison is probably transparently workable for files-that-look-binary.

Please feel free to open bugs for both of these!