FTPDIFF - Look for differences in the FTP site file system

Syntax:	FTPDIFF	[ path ] [ dbfile ] [ /options ]
Arguments:	[ path ]	Optional Variable or string defining the starting remote path from which to begin searching for differences; if omitted, the current remote folder is searched and [ dbfile ] defaults to “snapshot_site.sql”.
	[ dbfile ]	Optional Variable or string specifying a snapshot database file. If omitted, the default value is “snapshot_site.sql”. This argument may only be specified if [ path ] is also specified. When [ dbfile ] is specified without a full path the alternate default path is used.
Options:	/incldirs	Descend into sub-folders below the folder specified in the [ path ] argument
	/noupdate	Do not update the database with differences found.

The FTPDIFF and FTPGETDIFF commands work together to identify and process changes to local files.

The FTPDIFF command detects changes in the portion of the file system specified by the [ path ] argument using a small database file specified by the [ dbfile ] argument. This command adds a record to a "snapshot database" for each file listed in directory listings provided by the remote site. Empty folders are ignored. The FTPDIFF command then compares the new database records that represent the current state of the file system to the old records that represent the previous state of the file system and notes all differences. The differences are available to be processed, one at a time, by the FTPGETDIFF command.

If the file specified by the [ dbfile ] argument does not exist it will be created. The time required to create a new database depends on how many files are present. Since new snapshot databases do not contain any rows representing the previous state of the file system, all files added to a new database will be recorded as "new" files. If you don't want FTPGETDIFF to identify all files as new on the first execution of your command script then you can run this command once in Robo-FTP's main console window to establish a baseline snapshot database. This way, when you first run your command script only file changes since the baseline will be detected.

The total number of differences found in the remote site file system is saved in the %ftpdifffiles internal variable.

Consider the following example which compares the state of the current remote folder with the previous state of the remote file system as preserved in the default “snapshot_site.sql” file and then only downloads the changed files:

DIFF is the equivalent command for detecting differences in the local file system.

Note: Snapshot database files are small SQLite database files created by Robo-FTP to support the DIFF and FTPDIFF family of script commands.

The success of this command depends on Robo-FTP's ability to automatically read and understand the directory listings returned by the remote site. Most HTTP/HTTPS sites do not return listings in a supported format and many return no raw directory listings in response to HTTP GET requests based on slash-terminated URLs. Contact technical support if you have an urgent need related to a raw directory listing format that is currently unsupported.