Knowing the contents of a file..
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Hi, I am new to C#.NET.. I am building a C# application which searches for files in the HDD.. However there may be many duplicate files with the same name and same contents.. My objective is to delete the files with same contents.. So, say if there are two files (mscorlib.dll for framework 1.1 and another mscorlib.dll for framework 2.0), the application should not delete them, since they are essentially two different assemblies for different framework and should have different contents in it.. Where as say we have a file (abc.exe and another: pqr.exe) having the same contents(say I copied one and renamed it to another), they should be deleted, since they contain same contents and differ in name only.. How do I apply this? How can I know the contents of a file? Do I have to apply some checksome algorithm for that? If so, How? If No, then how to find out whether the contents of two files are same?? Please keep in mind I am doing this only for executables (.exe,.dll,.bat,.com etc) Please guide.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks..
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Hi, I am new to C#.NET.. I am building a C# application which searches for files in the HDD.. However there may be many duplicate files with the same name and same contents.. My objective is to delete the files with same contents.. So, say if there are two files (mscorlib.dll for framework 1.1 and another mscorlib.dll for framework 2.0), the application should not delete them, since they are essentially two different assemblies for different framework and should have different contents in it.. Where as say we have a file (abc.exe and another: pqr.exe) having the same contents(say I copied one and renamed it to another), they should be deleted, since they contain same contents and differ in name only.. How do I apply this? How can I know the contents of a file? Do I have to apply some checksome algorithm for that? If so, How? If No, then how to find out whether the contents of two files are same?? Please keep in mind I am doing this only for executables (.exe,.dll,.bat,.com etc) Please guide.. Any help would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks..
This sounds like a nightmare. If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings. File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
Christian Graus Please read this if you don't understand the answer I've given you "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
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This sounds like a nightmare. If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings. File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
Christian Graus Please read this if you don't understand the answer I've given you "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )
Christian Graus wrote:
If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings.
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break?? :doh:
Christian Graus wrote:
File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
How to compare them?? Any particular method in BCL or write an algorithm for that?
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Christian Graus wrote:
If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings.
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break?? :doh:
Christian Graus wrote:
File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
How to compare them?? Any particular method in BCL or write an algorithm for that?
ptr2void wrote:
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break??
If you let a process run wild on your machine which randomly decides to delete exe's dll's etc there is a fairly good chance you will break your windows install.
ptr2void wrote:
How to compare them?? Any particular method in BCL or write an algorithm for that?
You compare them by comparing their bytes. Try some code, read any exe on your machine using
File.ReadAllBytes. Have a look at the return from that method (a byte array) and have a think about how you might compare 2 separate file's bytes (hint: a byte is essentially a number between 0 and 255) -
Christian Graus wrote:
If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings.
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break?? :doh:
Christian Graus wrote:
File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
How to compare them?? Any particular method in BCL or write an algorithm for that?
ptr2void wrote:
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break??
Imagine that you installed two different applications that use the same control (e.g.
Excellent.Grid.dll). Your app will find theExcellent.Grid.dllfile in two different directories (e.g. C:\Program Files\Excellent Calendar and C:\Program Files\Excellent Cookbook), will delete one copy since they are exactly the same and... one application will stop working. -
ptr2void wrote:
Didnt quite get this line.. What might break??
If you let a process run wild on your machine which randomly decides to delete exe's dll's etc there is a fairly good chance you will break your windows install.
ptr2void wrote:
How to compare them?? Any particular method in BCL or write an algorithm for that?
You compare them by comparing their bytes. Try some code, read any exe on your machine using
File.ReadAllBytes. Have a look at the return from that method (a byte array) and have a think about how you might compare 2 separate file's bytes (hint: a byte is essentially a number between 0 and 255)J4amieC wrote:
If you let a process run wild on your machine which randomly decides to delete exe's dll's etc there is a fairly good chance you will break your windows install.
I think you didnt understand my question or maybe I didnt put in a comprehansible manner.. I dont want to delete the searched files on the HDD.. That would be horrible.. I just want to delete(omit) them from my search results !! :)
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J4amieC wrote:
If you let a process run wild on your machine which randomly decides to delete exe's dll's etc there is a fairly good chance you will break your windows install.
I think you didnt understand my question or maybe I didnt put in a comprehansible manner.. I dont want to delete the searched files on the HDD.. That would be horrible.. I just want to delete(omit) them from my search results !! :)
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The bolding had a profound effect as well.
"Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter." --Ayn Rand
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This sounds like a nightmare. If you do it across your HDD, I will bet money you break somethings. File.ReadAllBytes will load the files, then you can compare them.
Christian Graus Please read this if you don't understand the answer I've given you "also I don't think "TranslateOneToTwoBillion OneHundredAndFortySevenMillion FourHundredAndEightyThreeThousand SixHundredAndFortySeven()" is a very good choice for a function name" - SpacixOne ( offering help to someone who really needed it ) ( spaces added for the benefit of people running at < 1280x1024 )