2 .\" NAME should be all caps, SECTION should be 1-8, maybe w/ subsection
3 .\" other parms are allowed: see man(7), man(1)
5 fdupes \- finds duplicate files in a given set of directories
15 Searches the given path for duplicate files. Such files are found by
16 comparing file sizes and MD5 signatures, followed by a
17 byte-by-byte comparison.
22 include files residing in subdirectories
25 follow symlinked directories
28 normally, when two or more files point to the same disk area they are
29 treated as non-duplicates; this option will change this behavior
32 exclude zero-length files from consideration
35 omit the first file in each set of matches
38 list each set of matches on a single line
41 show size of duplicate files
44 hide progress indicator
47 prompt user for files to preserve, deleting all others (see
52 display fdupes version
57 .\" Always quote multiple words for .SH
64 is specified, duplicate files are listed
65 together in groups, each file displayed on a separate line. The
66 groups are then separated from each other by blank lines.
72 is specified, spaces and backslash characters (\fB\e\fP) appearing
73 in a filename are preceded by a backslash character.
75 If fdupes returns with an error message such as
76 .B fdupes: error invoking md5sum
77 it means the program has been compiled to use an external
78 program to calculate MD5 signatures (otherwise, fdupes uses
79 interal routines for this purpose), and an error has occurred
80 while attempting to execute it. If this is the case, the
81 specified program should be properly installed prior
88 care should be taken to insure against
91 When used together with options
95 a user could accidentally
96 preserve a symlink while deleting the file it points to.
98 Furthermore, when specifying a particular directory more than
99 once, all files within that directory will be listed as their
100 own duplicates, leading to data loss should a user preserve a
101 file without its "duplicate" (the file itself!).
104 Adrian Lopez <adrian2@caribe.net>