Safety model
Most of what DupliWalker does cannot change your files at all. This page draws the line precisely, so you know which side of it you are on at any moment.
Read-only: everything up to the decision
These actions never modify your files:
- Scanning. Walking your folders and comparing content reads; it does not write. Running a scan again, or with different settings, is equally harmless.
- Reading results. Grouping, sorting, filtering, expanding a folder result, switching between the table, treemap and scatter plot views.
- Previewing and comparing. Opening two files side by side reads both.
- Selecting. Selecting files marks them in the interface. Selection is not deletion, and nothing happens because you selected something.
You can explore a scan as long as you like without risk. If you close DupliWalker at any point before a cleanup, nothing on disk has changed.
The actions that do modify files
Only explicit file operations change anything — deleting, moving, copying and renaming. The one you will use is deletion, and the application names it unambiguously:
Delete selected in Dupli — described in the interface as removing reviewed selections from Dupli folders only.
Two protections are built into that name:
- It acts on your selection, which you assembled deliberately.
- It acts on Dupli folders only. Copies in Reference folders are not what this removes — that is the entire reason for marking them.
The application’s own guidance is blunt about the rest:
Always review the proposed cleanup before confirming changes.
Before you delete, verify
Grouping tells you that files matched. Comparing lets you confirm it with your own eyes. For anything irreplaceable — photographs, documents you authored, anything with no second copy elsewhere — open the pair and look before you act.
This is the step people skip, and it is the only one that would have caught the mistake.
Deletion and recovery
Do not assume a deletion can be undone.
What happens to a deleted file depends on the platform you are running on and how that platform’s file system behaves. Where DupliWalker’s behaviour has been verified for a platform, this documentation will state it explicitly, per platform. Until then, treat deletion as final and make sure the copy you are keeping is one you can reach.
The safe habit, regardless of platform: keep a copy you have not touched — that is what a Reference folder is — and confirm your selection before you act.
A safe way to practise
The application ships a Guided Tour with a sample workspace, and states that the guided sample workspace never modifies your real files. It is the right place to see the whole flow — including a cleanup — before running one on your own data.
Next
- Duplicate groups — the decision unit.
- Quick start — the flow end to end.