Directory Scanner

The Directory Scanner feature can be found on the File menu of BNR. With the Directory Scanner you can use the file checking engine of BNR to check for duplicate files on your hard disk (or on a removable disk) against the same file-checking directories and removable drive databases as you use for newsgroups. The Directory Scanner window looks like this:

The items you can use the setup the directory scan are:

     Scan directory. With this edit field and/or the Browse button you can select which directory to scan.

     based on. With the "based on" setting you can select the newsgroup whose file checking settings you wish to use when scanning this directory. This combobox shows the DEFAULT newsgroup and any other newsgroups whose file checking settings differ from the default (but not necessarily from each other).

     Show name-only matches. If you check this box, BNR will show you files that have the same name but which are of a different size.

     Include subdirectories. If you wish to scan the whole directory tree starting from the directory you have selected, check this box.

     Show size-only matches never. This is the fastest option as it will not check all the files with the same size.

     if contents match. With this setting BNR will check the contents if two files have the same size and both files are accessible (both files are on a hard disk or you are scanning a removable media). If a size match is found on a removable drive database the match is ignored as the contents can not be checked. Note that BNR will only check the first 4 kilobytes of the files, so there is a slight chance that the files are not quite similar even if BNR shows them as matching. If you wish to be absolutely sure you need the check the files manually.

     always. With this checking all the size matches are reported and no contents are checked.

     Scan! Clicking on this button will start the scan. BNR first loads the filenames of the scanned directories into the grid, and then begins the scan. The scan is run in the foreground, so it is not advisable to run the scan (especially if checking contents) at the same time as you are downloading files.

     Help. Clicking on this button will show you this help text.

The Directory Scanner has a View menu you can use the select which files to view and how to sort the files. You can also execute any file by doubleclicking on it, or use the right-click menu to perform additional actions on the file(s). The key shortcuts for Mark (which will actually execute the file), Delete file and Popup menu are available. You can also use the following keys:

     D to delete the selected file(s) (Note that this will always work on the file in the Filename column, not in the Matches column).

     E to execute the file (shown on the Filename column).

     K to open the Kill filter for the selected file(s).

     M to execute the matching file (shown on the Matches column).

     O or P to see properties of the file.

     W to open the Want filter for the selected file(s).

Note that it is not directly possible to scan a directory against any selected directory on your disk. If you wish to do this, you need to subscribe to a new (dummy) newsgroup and setup it's file checking settings so that you can use it as a "based on" setting in Directory Scanner.