box_dir_diff
is the internal function used by
box_fetch()
and box_push()
to determine how to
which files and folders should be uploaded/downloaded, updated,
or deleted, to synchronize remote and local directories.
box_dir_diff(
dir_id = box_getwd(),
local_dir = getwd(),
load = "up",
folders = FALSE
)
The id of the box.com folder which you'd like to use for the comparison
The path of the local folder which you'd like to use for the comparison
logical
. Should the results be in the context of an upload
or a download operation? Permitted values are "up"
or "down"
logical
. Should folders/directories be included in the
result?
An object of class boxr_dir_comparison
, describing the
differences between the files.
It is a named list, it's entries containing data frames, describing the files in each of the following categories:
new
Files which are present in the origin, but not the destination. These
will be downloaded by box_fetch()
/uploaded by
box_push()
.
superfluous
These are files which are present in the destination, but not the
origin. If delete
is set to TRUE
in
box_fetch()
/box_push()
, they will be deleted.
to_update
Files which are present in both the origin and the destination, but
which have more recently modified copies in the origin. If downloading
with box_fetch()
, and overwrite
set to TRUE
,
new files will overwrite existing local copies. If uploading with
box_push()
(and overwrite
set to TRUE
), the
new version will be uploaded to box.com, with a new version number, and
the old version still being available.
up_to_date
Files present in both origin and destination, with the same content.
Note: A file may be modified at later date, but if it has identical
contents according to it's sha1
hash, it will be considered
up-to-date. box_fetch()
/box_push()
do nothing for these
files.
behind
Files which are present in both origin and destination, but where the
content differs, and the version in the destination has been more
recently updated. box_fetch()
/box_push()
do nothing for these
files.
new_folders
Analogous to the file operation, but for directories/folders.
superfluous_folders
Analogous to the file operation, but for directories/folders.
box_dir_diff
works by comparing files in the 'origin' to
those in the 'destination'.
For downloading files (e.g. with box_fetch()
), the origin is
the remote folder on box.com specified with dir_id
, and the
destination would be the local directory specified by local_dir
.
The reverse is true for uploads (e.g. via box_fetch()
).
box_dir_diff
decides what should happen to a file based on three
Is the file present in both the origin and destination? The filename (within the directory structure) is used to determine this.
If a file is present in both the origin and the destination, does it
have the same content? The definition comes from the file's sha1
hash, which for local files is determined using the
digest()
function from the package of the same name. For
remote files, it is queried from the box.com API.
If a file is present in both the origin and destination, and the content is different in each, boxr will prefer the file which was most recently modified.
For local files, the 'content modified time' is used; the mtime
variable returned by file.info()
.
For remote files, the modified_at
date returned by the box.com API.
This is the time that the file was modified on the box.com servers, as
opposed to the time that the content itself was modified.
Why not use the content modified time for both?
With regards to the box.com API, modified_at
is preferred to
content_modified_at
, as it includes changes to the file outside of
just it's content. This means that, for example, a collaborator could
roll back to a previous version of a file, or upload a preferred but
older version. These actions count as modifications on the box.com
servers, but not to the content of the file itself (they are reflected
in modified_at
, but not content_modified_at
).
Implementing similar functionality for local files is not possible in a platform-independent manner; content modified time is the only file-based timestamp which has a consistent definition for UNIX and Windows systems.
box_fetch()
and box_push()
, which depend on
this internal function, file.info()
for timestamps describing
local files, digest()
for details of the sha1
algorithm
implementation.