in reply to Directory comparison

I just saw File::Dircmp on cpan.

SYNOPSIS use File::Dircmp; @r = dircmp($dir1, $dir2, $diff, $suppress);

DESCRIPTION The dircmp command examines dir1 and dir2 and generates various tabulated information about the contents of the directories. Listings of files that are unique to each directory are generated for all the options. If no option is entered, a list is output indicating whether the file names common to both directories have the same contents.