ASPL User Guide v 1.00
© 2025 Bassem W. Jamaleddine
11. 2Dispersed Files and Directories
The utility script dispersed let you drill into your directories to peek at files and directories
There are several views you can select to look into your files and directories.
The following is the list of known view specifiers that have been coded in the dispersed utility:
samenames_differententropy
display files having the same names but different entropy
union
display the union of files and subdirectories
filenamesunion
display the union of all file names in the directories
filenamescommon
display the common files found in the directories
samenames
display files by the same names found in any subdirectory
namesunion_samecontents
display the union of the files having the same contents
namesunion_differentcontents
display the union of the files having different contents
samenames_differentcontents
display file by same names (anywhere in subdir) with different contents
samenames_differentcontents2
display file by same names (anywhere in subdir) with different contents
samenames_samecontents
display file by same names (anywhere in subdir) with same contents
samenames_samecontents2
display file by same names (anywhere in subdir) with same contents
samecontents
display all files by checksums
anyname_samecontents
display file by any name with same contents
anyname_samecontents2
display file by any name with same contents
differentnames_samecontents
display files with different names but having the same contents
differentnames_samecontents2
display files with different names but having the same contents
samecontents_sametime
display files with same contents and having the same time
samecontents_differenttime
display files with same contents and having differents times
samenamesnocase
display files with same names (ignore the case)
samenamesnocase_differentcontents
display files with same names (ignore the case) having different contents
samenamesnocase_samecontents
display files with same names (ignore the case) having same contents
samenamesdiffcase
matching just the element (different case only) and ignoring ./subgroups
subdir
display subdirectories
commonsubdir
display the common subdirectories
commonsubdir_samecontents
display the common subdirectories with same contents
commonsubdir_differentcontents
display the common subdirectories with different contents
subdirstem
display the subdirectories where any stem is matched
subdirstem_samecontents
display the subdirectories where any stem is matched with same contents
subdirstem_differentcontents
display the subdirectories where any stem is matched with different contents
bybeginningnames
display the files starting with the same names
bybeginningnames_differentcontents
display the files starting with the same names but having different contents
bybeginningnames_samecontents
display the files starting with the same names but having same contents
byendingnames
display the files ending with the same names
byendingnames_differentcontents
display the files ending with the same names but having different contents
byendingnames_samecontents
display the files ending with the same names but having same contents
At your fingertips, shallow set operators to peek into files and directories.
Look into the scattered files in your distributed filesystem!
Dispersed Files and Directories
Your files are often dispersed in various directories on your computer systems. Some files may have the same names with different contents, and some other may have different names with same contents. Here is dispersed to provide you with various views to reveal what is going on with your files whether they are on your local machine or distributed on remote machines. The script can also save your groups to a namedspace so you can load it and explore with different views.
Dispersed Files and DirectoriesWe want to see how the files are being dispersed in three directories: the directory /tmp/edu1 located on the remote hostname vienna, and the directories /tmp/edu4 and /tmp/edu5, located on the current machine. We run the command dispersed to display three views: samenames_differententropy, bybeginningnames, and differentnames_samecontents.
Dispersed Files and Directories#
To show the resulting output of the command, we persisted the groups in the sample workspace FOOJUNK2.dispersed -view samenames_differententropy,bybeginningnames,differentnames_samecontents -dir vienna:/tmp/edu1 -dir /tmp/edu4 -dir /tmp/edu5 -savetonamedspace FOOJUNK2Since we persisted the data to the namedspace FOOJUNK2, we can load it and look into its history# aspl FOOJUNK2
aspl> hs
Dispersed Looking for Files with Different CasesTo view these files that have the same names but with different cases, that can be anywhere in subfolders (subgroups), we repeat the command with the -view samenamesdiffcase.
Dispersed Looking for Files with Different CasesSince we persisted the groups to the namedspace FOOJUNK2, the command loads the namedspace (so to avoid globing the
directories again).
#
The following display show the result of the command.dispersed -view samenamesdiffcase -dir vienna:/tmp/edu1 -dir /tmp/edu4 -dir /tmp/edu5 -loadnamedspace FOOJUNK2
Dispersed for Files with Same Contenst but Different TimesTo view these files that have the same contents but with different times, that can be anywhere in subfolders (subgroups), we repeat the command with the -view samecontents_differenttime.
Dispersed for Files with Same Contenst but Different Times#
The following display show the result of the command.dispersed -view samecontents_differenttime -dir vienna:/tmp/edu1 -dir /tmp/edu4 -dir /tmp/edu5 -loadnamedspace FOOJUNK2 -ks "fname chksum mtime"
Dispersed Files and DirectoriesThe directories may have some common subfolders that have differents contents. To view these subfolders, we repeat the command with the -view commonsubdir_differentcontents.
Dispersed Files and Directories#
The following display show the result of the command.dispersed -view commonsubdir_differentcontents -dir vienna:/tmp/edu1 -dir /tmp/edu4 -dir /tmp/edu5 -loadnamedspace FOOJUNK2