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Bug 405893 - move/copy: compare files and behave differently if identical
move/copy: compare files and behave differently if identical
Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE
Product: nautilus
Classification: Core
Component: File and Folder Operations
2.16.x
Other All
: Normal enhancement
: ---
Assigned To: Nautilus Maintainers
Nautilus Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2007-02-08 20:45 UTC by Mitja Kleider
Modified: 2018-07-25 14:40 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: Unversioned Enhancement


Description Mitja Kleider 2007-02-08 20:45:49 UTC 
When I move or copy files that already exist, nautilus could compare the checksums  before asking if I want to overwrite. If the checksums are the same,
1) copy: just do nothing
2) move: ask if I want to delete the identical source or do nothing

Comparing checksums by hand for many files just is not the right way. Reading a full document to find out if it is different could be wasting time of many unexperienced users.
Comment 1 Keenan Pepper 2007-10-06 15:40:49 UTC 
This behavior would be nice, but note that there's no reason to calculate the checksums if you have access to both files. Nautilus could simply compare the files byte by byte, as "cmp" does. The checksum algorithm has to look at every byte anyway, and also do some extra calculation, so it's less efficient.

So, the title of this bug should be changed to: "move/copy: compare files and behave differently if identical".
Comment 2 Reinout van Schouwen 2008-12-28 12:21:44 UTC 
Changed summary according to comment #1.

Mitja, is this bug still valid with Nautilus 2.24?
Comment 3 Mitja Kleider 2008-12-28 21:29:12 UTC 
$ nautilus --version
GNOME nautilus 2.24.1

Nautilus is still just asking if I want to overwrite or skip the file.

This is not a bug, but a feature request. The ideas of comment #1 sound good to me.
Comment 4 António Fernandes 2018-07-25 14:40:01 UTC 
Requested again at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/nautilus/issues/534 Closing here.