What about
diff -rq DIR1 DIR2
or
diff -rqb DIR1 DIR2
-r is recursive
-q is for brief, and will just tell you if the files are different (i.e., it won't show the line-by-line differences)
-b ignores whitespace
There are many ways to do this (here I'm using BeyondCompare as an example, it's the best I've found in this category, but the solution also works well with WinMerge):
A) Edit wincmd.ini
under %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\GHISLER\
by default, and add something like this:
[Configuration]
CompareTool=C:\Program Files\Shareware\FileCmp\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe
Now all comparisons are made using this app instead of the internal tool.
B) Using TotalCmd's StartMenu (command "Change start menu..."), add these commands:
Title:
BC (Compare left-vs-right directories)
Command:
%YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe
Parameters:
%X%p %X%t
Title:
BC (Compare current file under cursor vs same file in the other panel)
Command:
%YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe
Parameters:
"%X%p%x%n" "%X%t%x%n"
Title:
BC (Compare current file in left vs current file in right)
Command:
%YourPath%\BeyondCmp\BCompare.exe
Parameters:
"%X%p%n" "%X%t%m"
Best Answer
vimdiff 1 2 3 4;
It's highly customisable with loads of features, for example if you want to dump the UI to html;