Copy folder to left/right when a file filter is applied silently copies filtered files

[MookThompson]

I'm trying to use WinMerge to carefully control updates to a right-hand-side location, which it's great at doing, apart from one issue I've found. Apologies in advance if I've missed something in the config that addresses this, but I have spent ages looking.

Problem

If you have a file filter applied to hide some files, then do folder copy to left/right, the copy operation copies the files you can see in WinMerge, but also silently copies files across those you can't see due to the filter. This can lead to unexpected files being copied, and because of the filter, it's not even obvious this has happened until you look at the destination in Windows Explorer.

Solutions?

As a starting point, can the 'copy folder' action be disabled (by config or command-line)?
Ideally, you should be able to control the behaviour of the 'copy folder' operation when used with active file/folder filter, to do one of the following:

• unconditionally copy the entire contents of the folder across, as currently.
• warn if excluded files / folders are going to be copied across (and ideally give you the choice of whether they should be copied). This could be the default behaviour?
• only copy over files / folders that match the current filter, so the copy operation only copies the stuff you can see in WinMerge.

[sdottaka]

Related issues: #198, #1168, #1350

[pleg]

currently i use a manual workaround:

1. select all
2. deselect folders
3. trigger the copy eg. L -> R

it would be cool if the deselection of folders could be done automatically

[sdottaka]

PR #2622 allows you to choose whether to copy only items that differ when selecting and copying a folder.