Command Line Options

Duplicate File Detective provides a command-line interface that you can use to schedule project execution or integrate with an existing file management process.

Command line instructions (known as arguments) are passed in using a specific syntax which must be followed carefully. Here's an example:

dfd.exe /project:"c:\temp\test-project.dfd" /html:"c:\temp\export.html" /exit

Note that the arguments passed to the command line actions are surrounded by quotes; this is a requirement, as it allows the argument to contain spaces and still be parsed correctly.

You can also access the Duplicate File Detective executable using an absolute path, which is generally what you'll want to do when creating batch files, etc. Example:

"C:\Program Files\Duplicate File Detective\dfd.exe" /project:"c:\temp\test-project.dfd"

Notice how, in the example above, the path to the Duplicate File Detective executable is also contained in quotes. This helps to ensure that spaces in the path name are handled correctly by the Windows command interpreter.

Important: Use of command line options within Duplicate File Detective is project-oriented. You execute a project by providing its name to the Duplicate File Detective program executable. You must create and save a project to disk before you can execute it in this fashion. This is a very powerful concept which effectively provides you with access to every project setting from the command line.

Available Command Line Switches

Tip: To schedule the execution of a  Duplicate File Detective project, first create a batch (.bat) file that calls the Duplicate File Detective executable with the correct command line arguments. Then use the integrated Windows scheduler to invoke the batch file on a scheduled basis.