FC.EXE: Is there a faster alternative?
Posted: 17 Jun 2016 12:15
Summary: Is there an MS-DOS utility to compare the filenames, file sizes, date and time stamps, of two files and report back if they are identical or different?
Explanation: I'm running MS-DOS 6.21 on a pre-historic Dell Inpiron 1100 laptop.
I save all my work to 1.44 mb floppy disks and keep 3 copies of each file, one copy on each of three disks. I back-up often, i.e., every few minutes.
Years ago I wrote a little batch file that I run from my text editor (TSE 2.5) that first checks the current version of the text file in memory against the the last saved version of the file on the floppy disk. When it detects a change it then proceeds to back-up the text file from the laptop's memory onto the floppy disk, and also gives me the option to proceed to making one or two more back-ups on separate floppies.
This batch file has worked well for me all these years, but it has one annoying and tedious drawback: In my batch file I used the DOS utility FC.EXE to compare the file in memory with the file on the floppy. And as the file I'm working on grows in size, it seems that the time FC.EXE takes to make the comparison increases exponentially. I suspect that the reason for this is that FC.EXE laboriously scans through and compares each and every character in both files from beginning to end. And the bottleneck is the slow access to the floppy drive.
I'm thinking that there might be a much quicker and simpler way to compare the files, such as by just looking at the file name, size, date and time, without having to go through each file character by character.
Is there a utility that does this? If so, do you think it would work just as reliably as FC.EXE in my batch file?
Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
Explanation: I'm running MS-DOS 6.21 on a pre-historic Dell Inpiron 1100 laptop.
I save all my work to 1.44 mb floppy disks and keep 3 copies of each file, one copy on each of three disks. I back-up often, i.e., every few minutes.
Years ago I wrote a little batch file that I run from my text editor (TSE 2.5) that first checks the current version of the text file in memory against the the last saved version of the file on the floppy disk. When it detects a change it then proceeds to back-up the text file from the laptop's memory onto the floppy disk, and also gives me the option to proceed to making one or two more back-ups on separate floppies.
This batch file has worked well for me all these years, but it has one annoying and tedious drawback: In my batch file I used the DOS utility FC.EXE to compare the file in memory with the file on the floppy. And as the file I'm working on grows in size, it seems that the time FC.EXE takes to make the comparison increases exponentially. I suspect that the reason for this is that FC.EXE laboriously scans through and compares each and every character in both files from beginning to end. And the bottleneck is the slow access to the floppy drive.
I'm thinking that there might be a much quicker and simpler way to compare the files, such as by just looking at the file name, size, date and time, without having to go through each file character by character.
Is there a utility that does this? If so, do you think it would work just as reliably as FC.EXE in my batch file?
Will in Seattle
a.k.a. "Clueless"
