When user tries to overwrite an existing file, assist with difftool
Use cases
Steps to reproduce:
- Have two folders,
A
andB
. Both contain different files namedc
. - User copies file(s) from
A
toB
, includingc
.
Current situation
User gets a dialog that the file already exists. There is no indication to whether the files are identical or not and no way for the user to easily find out. There is no simple way for the user to compare both files.
Desired behavior
Assist the user by providing a difftool for the two files or folders (see also #1380). Possible solutions include:
- If a single file is being copied or only a single conflict occurs, suggest a difftool for source and target file.
- If more than one conflict occurs, suggest a difftool for source and target folder.
The difftool could be hard-coded to be meld or be configurable through dconf at least. Both steps can only happen if a difftool is installed.
Benefits of the solution
In many cases, when copying files and running into conflicts the user would need to open both files and compare them manually or (if the user is more experienced) open both files in a different application such as meld. This involves opening a separate application and adding both files to the comparison. We could help users to ease this process.
Possible drawbacks
A little more code and thus complexity.