ChangeScan Files

Release 3.1 - A program that can tell you what has changed on a computer's file system. It is the spiritual successor of a JavaScript program I created many years ago for a client to test their installer. Scan all or part of the filesystem; perform your installation (or otherwise cause changes); scan it again and it tells you what changed.

• For normal usage: java -jar ChangeScan.jar
• For more examples: java -jar ChangeScan.jar examples
• For license information: java -jar ChangeScan.jar license
• Latest release is available here: https://github.com/william-hood/ChangeScan/releases

Change Scan - © 2020, 2023, 2025 William Arthur Hood
📜  MIT Licensed: java -jar ChangeScan.jar LICENSE
‼️👉    Examples: java -jar ChangeScan.jar EXAMPLES
Change Scan is a tool for seeing what changed on a file system as the
result of a software install, uninstall, or any other process that
might cause files to be created, changed, or deleted. YOU MAY NEED TO
RUN THIS PROGRAM WITH ADMINISTRAIVE PRIVILEDGES.

1. Create a baseline...
   java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root folder> SAVE <baseline filename>

2. Install, Uninstall, or otherwise cause changes...

3. Scan again, comparing against the baseline...
   java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root folder> COMPARE <baseline filename> REPORT <report filename>

* Instead of ROOT and SAVE, the switch USE provides a comparison
  between two already existing baselines.
* Report is HTML format.
* Exclude items using EXCLUDE <DIRECTORY|FILE|PATTERN> <excluded item>
* Save the console output with LOG <output filename>

Create baseline or scan a 2nd time (use a different filename)
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root folder> SAVE <baseline filename>

As above, but exclude directory
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root> SAVE <filename> EXCLUDE DIRECTORY <fully qualified folder name>

As above, but exclude file
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root> SAVE <filename> EXCLUDE FILE <fully qualified filename>

As above, but exclude everything with a substring
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root> SAVE <filename> EXCLUDE PATTERN <substring>

As above, but with multiple exclusions (no limit)
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root> SAVE <filename> EXCLUDE PATTERN <string> EXCLUDE FILE <filename> EXCLUDE DIRECTORY <name>

Scan and compare against the baseline (won't save this scan; you may add EXCLUDE as above)
java -jar ChangeScan.jar ROOT <root folder> COMPARE <baseline filename> REPORT <report filename>

DO NOT scan, just compare two baseline files
java -jar ChangeScan.jar USE <post change baseline>.fsc COMPARE <pre change baseline>.fsc

Note that 'EXCLUDE' is the only argument that may appear multiple times.

WINDOWS USERS MAY NEED TO FOLLOW THESE STEPS TO PROPERLY DISPLAY EMOJIS IN THE CONSOLE

https://akr.am/blog/posts/using-utf-8-in-the-windows-terminal