FILECOMPARETO - Compare file size and time/date stamp to FTP site

Syntax:	FILECOMPARETO	[ file name ]
Arguments:	[ file name ]	Variable or string defining a local file or path name; if no path is defined Robo-FTP’s working folder is used.
Options:	/tz=xx	Timezone adjustment (in hours) between the local PC and the FTP site; value is expressed as a positive or negative integer; used when local and server file’s time/date stamps are compared. This option is unnecessary if the remote site supports the /precisetime option of the FTPLOGON command. This option is functionally equivalent to calling the TIMEZONE command so this adjustment persists after the execution of the current line of script. This option is deprecated in favor of the TIMEZONE command.

This command compares the size and date/time stamp of a specified local file with a file of the same name in the current directory on a remote site.

The results of the comparison are saved in two internal script variables: size result is saved in %comparesize and date/time result is saved in %comparedate. These variables may then be tested using the IFSIZE and IFDATE commands respectively. (Do not use the IFERROR command.)

Consider the following example where a specified local file is compared to a correspondingly named file on the site and a conditional branch is taken if the file on the remote site is larger than the local file.

If you are not using the TIMEZONE script command, you may specify the /tz option to account for differences in timezones between Robo-FTP and the remote site. This is important for accurate file date and time stamp comparisons. For example, if you are using Robo-FTP in the Central U.S. timezone and the site is located in the Eastern U.S. timezone there is a one-hour difference between the file system times of Robo-FTP’s PC and the site. To allow for this in the FILECOMPARETO command, the command would look like the following which indicates that the site is one hour ahead:

Further, if the remote site is located in the Pacific U.S. timezone there is a two-hour difference the other way between the file system times of Robo-FTP’s PC and the site. To allow for this, the command would look like the following which indicates that the remote site is two hours behind:

The success of this command depends on Robo-FTP's ability to automatically read and understand the directory listings returned by the remote site. It is not uncommon for HTTP/HTTPS sites to fail to return any directory listings or to return listings in an unsupported format. Contact technical support if you have an urgent need related to a directory listing format that is currently unsupported.