Still at the winmerge stage .....

... and getting a little frustrated. In reading the documentation I find that I need to compare my installation of 1.3.6 which I have modified with a "virgin" version to find the changes and then include them in my shiny new 1.3.9g version. Yep that's logical.

I've installed winmerge and read all the posts I could find to get me started on this. :no: I think I'm missing something. I know I need to compare all the files in the two 1.3.6 versions but one is an uninstalled version and the other an installed one, files are not in the same place as far as I can see - are they relocated by the install file?? I can't install because xampp has a more current version of php and won't support the 1.3.6 install.

Is there a smarter way of doing this? I guess others have done this before. Sorry need simple instructions.

Thanks
W

The core default files should be in the same structure
Depending upon if you have created override files these will only be in your version

Maybe an example??

Thanks for the reply.

What I'd like to be able to do is set winmerge off to compare all the files - am I just being lazy - probably? So, a recursive search of some kind? Start at these folders and compare them and each file that they contain and tell me where there are differences in the file content.

So I have a folder called Active with my version and then another with the "virgin" files (I'll call it V) and I want to know which files are different in my whole structure.... for each file in each folder in Active compare with each file in each folder in V with the same name. That seems to rely on the file structures being the same which is why I asked about the install/installed differences.

W

You can set for mass compare

As I stated they should be in the same structure but you think not but did not provide an example

The template override files will be in an analogous but slightly different folder structure, and will not automatically compare with the default or core files. Winmerge can tell you all of the files in your installed set that do not have counterparts in the virgin set; you will have to check on each of those one at a time.

Kobra

Perhaps, then my problem is that I cannot work out how to "set for a mass compare". I'm sorry, I thought my last post had an example of what I was trying to do.

I'll go away and think about this for a bit - maybe this is simpler than I think .... nothing unusual there then .....

W

select a folder - donot select a file and click OK

You can set up the /includes/ folders of each fileset to compare, and it will tell you all the files that have differences, and files that are in one fileset and not the other (these will be mostly the files in your custom template).

Then you note and go through the files that have differences to see what the differences are. Usually they are just a few lines from version to version, though they may be large differences in some template or mod files.

Thank you for your patience.

I've had a much better look at what winmerge is telling me and think that the reason for my confusion was that my original installation was badly compromised by hackers - I already knew that it had been hacked. So I had a double installation with, for example, 2 versions of admin one inside the other, a load of php files in the images folder, odd files here that were nothing to do with Zen Cart but may have been something to do with the "over-installed" hacked version - or something else entirely.

A good kick up the backside for me then as there's no clean backup copy of the site. So, I compared both versions, exported a report of Winmerge's output to a spreadsheet and went through deleting the names of all suspect files from the spreadsheet. I now have the list of which files were altered by me. But, looking further, I realised what a mess the template/override files are and wonder how I managed to get anything like a working site.

So, I've decided that this is the time to re-work things (design and upgrade). Running an online shop may seem as if you can set it up and just get the orders rolling in but you still have to sweep the floor, lock the doors and clean the windows regularly - and I really should know better.

W

Running an online shop may seem as if you can set it up and just get the orders rolling in but you still have to sweep the floor, lock the doors and clean the windows regularly
May I use this??

A wonderful comparison to a brick & mortar shop

No problem - I use this in lectures - you can extend it to merchandising too. Look at the people who are just employed to put out a manufacturer's products in a supermarket and dream that they'll come and do that to your online store ... well they don't.:D

W