(Guide/Review) Find duplicate files and more with open source cross-platform tool Czkawka

[Karlston]

Find duplicate files and more with open source cross-platform tool Czkawka

Czkawka is a free open source too to find duplicate images, broken files and more. It is written in Rust and available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS devices.

 

You may run the program right after you have downloaded it and extracted the archive it is supplied as. The main interface is separated into two areas: the directories and files selector at the top, and the function that you want to run on the selection at the bottom.

 

The program supports adding directories using a file browser or manual adds; you may also exclude directories and items or change the list of allowed file extensions.

 

 

The following operations are supported by Czkawka:

• Find duplicate files -- searches for dupes based on file name, size, hash or first Megabyte hash.
• Empty folders -- finds folders without content.
• Big files -- displays the biggest files, by default the top 50 biggest files.
• Empty files -- finds empty files, similarly to empty folders.
• Temporary files -- finds temporary files with certain file extensions.
• Similar images -- finds images which are not exactly the same, e.g. images with different resolutions.
• Zeroed files -- finds files that are zeroed.
• Same music -- finds music from the same artist, album and other search parameters.
• Invalid symbolic links -- finds symbolic links that point to files or directories that are missing.
• Broken files -- finds files with invalid extensions and files that are corrupted.

Some file search operations display search parameters at the top. The similar images search, for instance, accepts a minimum file size and a parameter that defines how similar images need to be to be detected.

 

Just hit the search button in the interface to run the task on the selected folders and files. Search was quick during tests, even on an not-so-powerful Surface Go device from Microsoft.

 

 

Files and folders that are found during the scan may be deleted right away, but there are also other options. For dupes, options are provided to save the selection, and to create symbolic or hardlinks. The symbolic links option sets the first file as the default and creates symbolic links from the other locations to it.

 

One thing that is missing, at least when it comes to the duplicate file finder, is the ability to preview certain file types right away in the interface. The similar images finder has that option, as it displays a preview of the selected image right in the interface. For duplicate files, no such option exists and that means that you need to open the files manually for verification to find out if they are indeed duplicates.

 

Some file types can be opened with a double-click on them.

 

Czkawka has a CLI version as well which is much smaller in size than the graphical user interface version. To get started, type czkawka_cli to get a list of supported commands and examples. Additional information on the CLI versino and general tips and tricks on using the program can be found on the developer's GitHub website.

 

Closing Words

 

Czkawka is an open source cross-platform to run file operations, such as finding duplicate files or similar images, on the selection. It is easy to use and quite fast when it comes to the execution of its operations.

 

Landing Page: https://github.com/qarmin/czkawka/blob/master/instructions/Instruction.md

 

 

Find duplicate files and more with open source cross-platform tool Czkawka