This issue tracker has been migrated to GitHub, and is currently read-only.
For more information, see the GitHub FAQs in the Python's Developer Guide.

Author techtonik
Recipients eric.araujo, tarek, techtonik
Date 2010-06-04.13:23:48
SpamBayes Score 0.008727706
Marked as misclassified No
Message-id <AANLkTiknt-aKUjBb6Ml6VS9VqYkju0BOKujMQybUlqKc@mail.gmail.com>
In-reply-to <1275653027.67.0.572038296072.issue8891@psf.upfronthosting.co.za>
Content
> """
> I use well-defined development toolchain for working with binary files
> that can detect insignificant change in some kind of binary data like
> timestamps in .zip archive, but comparing moving blocks is a disaster.
> """
>
> Please explain us how you compare the content of two zip archives.

Here is the open source approach. I use soviet "swiss army knife" Far
Manager tool from http://www.farmanager.com/ that some years ago
became open sourced under revised BSD license. It can not compare
files itself, but allows you to switch forth and back between two
dumps of files in hex view with Ctrl-Tab / Ctrl-Shift-Tab shortcuts.
The comparison is done with standard windows command line tool "fc".
It is better to explain by example - I will list the key you need to
type and explanation below - keyboard shortcuts are in square
barckets. Right panel is C:\Downloads\python-wget\dist, left panel is
M:\, the cursor is placed on file wget-0.6.win32.force.exe that is
present in left and right panels and is the subject for comparison

1. fc /b [Ctrl-Enter] [Ctrl-]][Ctrl-Enter]
  this will give you the command line `fc /b wget-0.6.win32.force.exe
M:\wget-0.6.win32.force.exe`

2. [Ctrl-Home]edit:<
  this will give you the command line `edit:<fc /b
wget-0.6.win32.force.exe M:\wget-0.6.win32.force.exe`

3. [Enter]
  this will execute the output and open embedded editor with the
results. You will see hex offsets of differences

4. [Ctrl-Tab]
  your are back to file panels, but editor stays in a background -
notice the [0+1] marker in top left corner - it says that 0 viewers
and 1editor window are available.

5. F3
  you've opened current wget-0.6.win32.force.exe in embedded viewer

6. F4
  you've opened hex view for this file

7. [Ctrl-Shift-Tab]
  you're back at the fc output, copy the hex offset into clipboard
with [Ctrl-Ins]

8. [Ctrl-Tab]
  you're again at the hex view of the subject file

9. [Alt-F8][Shift-Ins][Enter]
  you're at the offset where difference start

10. [Ctrl-Tab]
  you're back at file panels

11. [Tab]
  switch to passive panel, repeat 5,6 and 9 for file from passive panel

12.
  now you can switch back and forth between differences in files with
[Ctrl-Tab]/[Ctrl-Shift-Tab]. You may want to switch to text view with
F4 for convenience.

I make all 12 steps in less than 20 seconds without using any plugins or macros.
History
Date User Action Args
2010-06-04 13:23:51techtoniksetrecipients: + techtonik, tarek, eric.araujo
2010-06-04 13:23:49techtoniklinkissue8891 messages
2010-06-04 13:23:48techtonikcreate