Built-in utility for macOS and Linux
If you don't mind using the terminal, the diff
command can compare directories:.
This utility is also available in most Linux distributions.
diff -rq directory1/ directory2/
-r
indicates recurse through subdirectories, and -q
gives brief output (iei.e. don't show the actual diffs, just note what files/dirs are different).
Other useful options are:
-s
report identical files,
-i
ignore case in file contents,
--ignore-file-name-case
ignore case when comparing file names.
If you want to avoid warnings (mostly usefulness warnings) about differences in the .DS_Store
files, then use:
diff -rq directory1/ directory2/ | grep -v .DS_Store