The release of Precizer 0.16.0, a command-line utility designed for checking the integrity of large file trees and identifying discrepancies after data synchronization, has been published. The project's code is written in C and is distributed under the GPLv3 license. Precompiled builds were previously available for Linux and macOS, with the key change in this release being experimental support for Windows.
The Precizer project has been developing for over two years and is positioned as a small, fast, and user-friendly CLI utility for tasks where standard file metadata comparison is insufficient. The program traverses the directory tree, computes file checksums (SHA512), and stores the information in an SQLite database. After that, databases created for different data sources can be compared with each other to obtain a list of missing files, extra files, and objects with mismatched checksums.
The primary use case is related to verifying the results of synchronizing large storage systems, backups, and disaster recovery copies. Unlike one-time runs of utilities that recalculate checksums from scratch, Precizer preserves state between runs and allows for resuming lengthy operations after interruptions. This is especially crucial for file trees with a large number of objects or volumes measured in terabytes and petabytes, where redoing a full pass through the data after an unexpected stop can become a task with no good practical solution.
It has also been noted that Precizer can be used as a security control tool to identify unauthorized changes to files, including cases where metadata does not reveal content substitution.
To update an existing database, an '—update' mode is provided, which allows for adding new files, removing entries for missing objects, and recalculating checksums for modified files. To restrict the scope of checks and comparisons, path filters are supported through '—ignore' and '—include'.
Ready-made archives of Precizer 0.16.0 are available for Linux x86_64, Linux AArch64, macOS arm64, and Windows x64. For Linux, there are portable statically compiled ELF files, not tied to a specific distribution. You can use a standard Makefile or prepared Docker environments for AlmaLinux, Alpine, Arch, Debian, Gentoo, Rocky, and Ubuntu for building from source.
The release includes two options for Windows builds: a ZIP archive with the executable file and the necessary DLL dependency, as well as a portable EXE file without external dependencies. Windows builds currently lack a digital signature from the publisher. Additionally, the portable EXE file may trigger warnings from Microsoft Defender, which is typical for early unsigned binaries built outside the usual supply chain of Windows applications.
Source: opennet.ru
