Reports

CompareCraft writes reports of folder and file comparisons: plain text for logs and e-mail, HTML for browsers, patch files for other tools, CSV statistics and XML for further processing. You can create them from the application window or with script commands. This page describes both, with every layout and option, and shows sample output.

Create reports in the application

Folder Compare and the file comparison views have a report command on the Session menu: Folder Compare Report…, Text Compare Report…, Table Compare Report…, Hex Compare Report… and Picture Compare Report…. In Folder Compare, select one or more files and choose Actions > File Compare Report… (also on the context menu) to report on the selected files instead.

The report dialog has three parts.

Report layout lists the layouts for the view:

Dialog	Layouts
Folder Compare Report	Side-by-side, Summary, XML Dump
Text Compare Report	Side-by-side, Summary, Interleaved, Patch, Statistics, XML Dump
Table Compare Report, Hex Compare Report	Side-by-side, Summary, Interleaved
Picture Compare Report	Side-by-side, Summary
File Compare Report	Side-by-side, Summary, Interleaved

File Compare Report uses the viewer-specific dialog when all selected files are of the same type, for example Text Compare Report for text files. Otherwise each file is reported with the viewer for its type.

Report options change with the view and the layout:

• A display filter: All, Differences, Same or None. In folder reports it offers the same filters as the Folder Compare toolbar, such as Orphans or Left Newer.
• For file reports: Ignore unimportant, and Show context (with Differences).
• Include line numbers (text, side-by-side), Include byte addresses (hex) or Include row numbers (table).
• For the Interleaved layout: Strikeout left differences and Strikeout right differences.
• For the Patch layout: Patch style: Normal diff, Context diff or Unified diff.
• For folder reports: Columns: Size, Modified, CRC and Attributes.

Output options choose where the report goes:

• Printer, with Difference highlighting: (Use color or Monochrome) and Wrap lines: (No wrap, Wrap words or Wrap characters). Click Print Preview to see the report first, or Print… to print it.
• HTML report, with Use color stylesheet, Use monochrome stylesheet or Use custom stylesheet URL:, and Allow word wrapping. Folder reports can also Include links to file reports. Click View in Browser to open the report in your web browser.
• Plain text. In Text Compare Report, the Patch, Statistics and XML Dump layouts are always plain text.

For HTML and plain text, click Copy to Clipboard or Save As…. Report title: sets the title on the first line of the report; it starts as the tab title.

The report shows the comparison as it is on screen:

• Folder reports include the files of expanded folders only, and use the current comparison criteria and filters.
• Text reports include edits that have not been saved, and use the current comparison rules.

CompareCraft remembers the last settings of each report dialog.

Create reports with scripts

Script commands create the same reports without opening a window (see Scripting):

ccomp @report.txt old new

# report.txt
load "%1" "%2"
expand all
folder-report layout:side-by-side options:display-mismatches output-to:folders.html output-options:html-color

Report commands

Command	Reports on
folder-report	The loaded folder comparison. Lists the files and folders, their sizes and dates, and whether they match.
file-report	File comparisons. Each file is reported with the viewer for its type: text, table, hex or picture.
text-report	File comparisons as text, line by line.
hex-report	File comparisons byte by byte.
table-report, data-report	File comparisons of CSV or other delimited files, cell by cell.
picture-report	Picture comparisons, pixel by pixel.

The file report commands (file-report and the four viewer-specific commands) can report on:

• two files given at the end of the command, for example text-report output-to:diff.txt a.txt b.txt;
• a saved session given by name;
• the loaded pair of files, if load was used with two files;
• all files selected in the loaded folder comparison, in one report.

folder-report always reports on the loaded comparison. It does not take paths, so load the folders first. It lists only the contents of expanded folders, so run expand all first if you want every file in the report.

Report arguments

All report commands take the same arguments. They can be given in any order:

<command> [layout:<layout>] [options:<option>,<option>,...] [title:<title>] output-to:<destination> [output-options:<option>,...] [<left> <right>]

Argument	Description
layout:	How the report is arranged. See Layouts.
options:	Comma-separated list of what to include. See Options.
title:	Report title, shown on the first line (and as the page title in HTML). The default is the viewer name, for example Text Compare or Folder Compare.
output-to:	Where the report goes. Required. See Output destinations.
output-options:	Comma-separated output format options. See Output options.

Values with spaces must be quoted, for example title:"Release 2.0 changes".

Layouts

Layout	Text	Table	Hex	Picture	Folder
side-by-side (default)	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
interleaved	yes	yes	yes	yes	no
summary	yes	yes	yes	yes	yes
patch	yes	no	no	no	no
statistics	yes	no	no	no	no
xml	yes	no	no	no	yes

• side-by-side shows the left and right content in two columns, with a marker between them for each line or row.
• interleaved shows the left lines followed by the matching right lines, one above the other. This is useful for long lines.
• summary shows counts instead of content: matching and different lines, rows, bytes or pixels for files; groups of orphan, newer and different files for folders.
• patch writes a patch file that can be applied with the standard patch tool. The normal diff format is used, unless you give patch-unified or patch-context.
• statistics writes comma-separated values with the number of original, added, deleted and changed lines.
• xml writes the comparison in XML for processing by other tools.

Notes on layouts:

• patch, statistics and xml for text work only when the two files are given on the report command itself. For a loaded file pair or for files selected in a folder comparison, they produce a side-by-side report instead.
• For picture comparisons in plain text, summary gives pixel counts and the other layouts give only the report header. Use HTML output to see the picture differences.
• An unknown layout name gives a side-by-side report.

Options

Give options as a comma-separated list after options:, for example options:display-mismatches,line-numbers.

Options for file reports

Option	Description
display-all	Show all lines (default).
display-mismatches	Show only the differences.
display-context	Show the differences with a few matching lines of context around each one. Not available for hex-report.
display-matches	Show only the matching lines.
ignore-unimportant	Treat unimportant differences as matches. Unimportant differences are changes in case, whitespace and blank lines.
line-numbers	Show line numbers (text), row numbers (table) or byte offsets (hex) in side-by-side reports. Interleaved reports always show line numbers.
patch-unified	With layout:patch: unified diff format (---/+++, @@ hunks), with 3 lines of context.
patch-context	With layout:patch: context diff format (***/---), with 3 lines of context.
strikeout-left-diffs	HTML interleaved text reports: different text on the left is shown struck out.
strikeout-right-diffs	HTML interleaved text reports: different text on the right is shown struck out.
stats-descriptive	Not available. The report is written as a summary instead, and the script prints STATS-DESCRIPTIVE report is unavailable. Switching to SUMMARY report.

If several display- options are given, the last one wins.

Options for folder reports

These options choose which items are listed:

Option	Items shown	Mode shown in the report
display-all	All items (default)	All
display-mismatches	Orphans, newer and different files	Differences
display-no-orphans	Everything except orphans	No Orphans
display-mismatches-no-orphans	Newer and different files	Differences but No Orphans
display-orphans	Orphans on either side	Orphans
display-left-newer	Files that are newer on the left	Left Newer
display-right-newer	Files that are newer on the right	Right Newer
display-left-newer-orphans	Left newer files and left orphans	Left Newer and Left Orphans
display-right-newer-orphans	Right newer files and right orphans	Right Newer and Right Orphans
display-left-orphans	Items that exist only on the left	Left Orphans
display-right-orphans	Items that exist only on the right	Right Orphans
display-matches	Matching files	Same

These options choose the columns:

Option	Column
column-size	Size in bytes
column-timestamp	Modification date and time
column-crc	CRC checksum, when it has been calculated (for example with criteria crc)
column-attributes	File attributes, for example -rw-r--r-- on Linux and macOS

• Without any column- option, the report shows Size and Modified.
• When you give column- options, only those columns are shown, always in the order Size, CRC, Modified, Attributes.

include-file-links adds a link from each file in an HTML side-by-side folder report to a separate report of that file's comparison. See HTML reports.

Output destinations

Value	Destination
output-to:<file>	Writes the report to a file. Relative paths are resolved against the current directory, and missing folders are created. An existing file is replaced.
output-to:clipboard	Copies the report to the clipboard. On Linux this needs wl-copy, xclip or xsel to be installed.
output-to:printer	Sends the report to the default printer (lp or lpr on Linux and macOS, Notepad on Windows). Use plain-text reports for printing.

If the report cannot be written, the script prints a script error and continues, unless option stop-on-error is set.

Output options

Option	Description
(none)	Plain text.
html-color	HTML with colours.
html-mono	HTML in black and white.
html-custom=<URL>	HTML that links to your own style sheet at <URL> instead of the built-in one.
wrap-word	HTML only: long lines wrap within their cell. Without it, lines are not wrapped.

Combine them with commas, for example output-options:html-color,wrap-word. XML reports ignore the HTML options.

text-report output-to:report.html output-options:"html-custom=https://intranet.example.com/styles/diff.css" old.txt new.txt

HTML reports

An HTML report is a single HTML file with the style sheet embedded in it, so it can be opened in any browser, attached to an e-mail or published as a build artifact. With html-custom=, the file links to your style sheet instead.

A side-by-side text report with the color style sheet and line numbers:

A side-by-side folder report with the color style sheet, after expand all:

When the comparison criteria compared file contents (binary, crc or rules-based), the center column of a side-by-side folder report shows the result of each content comparison as an icon:

Icon	Meaning
01 and =	The files are binary identical
=	The files match by the comparison rules but are not binary identical, for example different line endings
≈	The files differ only in unimportant text
≠	The files differ
01 and ≠	The files differ byte for byte (binary criteria, or binary content with rules-based criteria)

With criteria timestamp size no contents are compared and the column stays empty. With html-mono, the icons are drawn in shades of gray.

Some reports need images or additional pages. These are written to folders next to the report file:

Folder	Contents
BcImages/	Tree lines, folder icons and content comparison icons used in folder reports, and the difference images of picture reports. Only the icons a report uses are written.
BcFiles/	With include-file-links: one HTML page for each file comparison linked from a folder report. These pages have their own BcImages/ folder inside BcFiles/.

When copying or publishing an HTML report, copy these folders along with it. For example, this script:

load left right
expand all
folder-report options:display-mismatches,include-file-links output-to:out/folder.html output-options:html-color

creates:

out/folder.html
out/BcImages/            (tree, folder and content images)
out/BcFiles/             (one page per linked file comparison)
out/BcFiles/BcImages/

Summary, patch and statistics reports in HTML always use the black-and-white style.

Sample text report

A side-by-side text report with options:display-all,line-numbers:

text-report layout:side-by-side options:display-all,line-numbers output-to:main.txt left/src/main.rs right/src/main.rs

Text Compare
Produced: 10/19/2026 12:52:54 AM

Mode:  All
Left file: /home/me/project/left/src/main.rs     Right file: /home/me/project/right/src/main.rs
1 fn main() {                =  1 fn main() {
---------------------------------------------------------------
2     println!("Hello");     <> 2     println!("Hello, world");
---------------------------------------------------------------
3     let x = 1;             =  3     let x = 1;
4     let y = 2;                4     let y = 2;
5     println!("{}", x + y);    5     println!("{}", x + y);
---------------------------------------------------------------
                             -+ 6     println!("done");
---------------------------------------------------------------
6 }                          =  7 }
---------------------------------------------------------------

The markers between the columns are:

Marker	Meaning
=	The lines match
<>	The lines differ
+-	The line exists only on the left
-+	The line exists only on the right

The same comparison with layout:summary:

5 same line(s)
1 important right orphan line(s)
1 important difference line(s)

2 difference section(s)

With options:ignore-unimportant, differences in case or whitespace are counted as ignored unimportant difference line(s) instead.

With layout:interleaved options:display-mismatches:

2       println!("Hello");
  2     println!("Hello, world");
---------------------------------
---------------------------------
  6     println!("done");
---------------------------------

With layout:patch options:patch-unified:

--- /home/me/project/left/src/main.rs   2026-10-01 09:00:00.000000000 
+++ /home/me/project/right/src/main.rs  2026-10-05 14:30:00.000000000 
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 fn main() {
-    println!("Hello");
+    println!("Hello, world");
     let x = 1;
     let y = 2;
     println!("{}", x + y);
+    println!("done");
 }

With layout:statistics:

Text Compare
Produced: 10/19/2026 12:59:48 AM
SourceFile,CompareFile,IOriginal,IAdded,IDeleted,IChanged,UOriginal,UAdded,UDeleted,UChanged,SourceError,CompareError,Error
/home/me/project/left/src/main.rs,/home/me/project/right/src/main.rs,6,1,0,1,0,0,0,0

The I columns count important lines and the U columns count unimportant lines.

Sample folder report

A side-by-side folder report after expand all, with options:display-all:

Folder Compare
Produced: 10/19/2026 12:52:54 AM

Mode:  All
Left base folder: /home/me/project/left
Right base folder: /home/me/project/right
Name       Size Modified                  Name       Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
docs         23 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM    docs         28 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
|                                      << +new.txt      9 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM
+notes.md    19 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM =  \notes.md    19 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM
\old.txt      4 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM >>
src         142 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM    src         171 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
+lib.rs      48 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM =  +lib.rs      48 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM
\main.rs     94 10/01/2026 09:00:00 AM << \main.rs    123 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
Cargo.toml   30 10/01/2026 09:00:00 AM << Cargo.toml   30 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marker	Meaning
=	The files match
<>	The files differ, including files that differ only in unimportant text
>>	The left file is newer, or the item exists only on the left
<<	The right file is newer, or the item exists only on the right

The +, \ and | characters in front of names draw the folder tree; a | on a side where an item is missing continues the line to that side's next item. Sizes use thousands separators, for example 3,222,473. If filters are in effect, the report header has a Filters: line describing them.

The same comparison with layout:summary options:display-mismatches lists the items in groups:

Folder Compare
Produced: 10/19/2026 12:52:54 AM

Mode:  Differences
Left base folder: /home/me/project/left
Right base folder: /home/me/project/right

Left Orphan Files (1)  Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------
docs/old.txt              4 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM
--------------------------------------------------

Right Orphan Files (1) Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------
docs/new.txt              9 09/20/2026 08:00:00 AM
--------------------------------------------------

Left Newer Files (0)   Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------

Right Newer Files (2)  Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------
src/main.rs              94 10/01/2026 09:00:00 AM
                        123 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
Cargo.toml               30 10/01/2026 09:00:00 AM
                         30 10/05/2026 02:30:00 PM
--------------------------------------------------

Difference Files (0)   Size Modified
--------------------------------------------------

For newer files, the first line shows the left file and the second line the right file.

Notes and limitations

• folder-report reports on the loaded comparison only. Paths after the command are an error (Unexpected argument(s), exit code 106). Use load first.
• hex-report does not accept display-context (exit code 106).
• stats-descriptive is not available and gives a summary report instead, with a message in the console and log.
• A report command without output-to: is an error (Report requires output-to, exit code 106).
• Folder reports and selections include only items inside expanded folders.