How do I compare two folders in powershell 5.1?

I ended up creating my own solution. The relevant parts of it look like this:

 function Compare_Directory { [CmdletBinding()] Param( [string] [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] $src_dir, [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [string] $dest_dir ) Write-Host "$(Get-Date) - Diffing files in $src_dir to $dest_dir (will only report differences)" # Get .FullName to avoid issues with string replace not matching FullName to non-full file names (ie, paths using PSdrives) $src_str = (Get-Item $src_dir).FullName $dest_str = (Get-Item $dest_dir).FullName if ($verbose>1){ Write-Host "$(Get-Date) - $src_str -> $dest_str" } # Get all files under $folder1, filter out directories $src_files = Get-ChildItem $src_dir -force | Where-Object { -not $_.PsIsContainer } # -Recurse # -force will pick up dotfiles (or windowspeak, files with the hidden attribute set) $i=0 $mismatches=0 $src_files | ForEach-Object { $src_fl = (Get-Item $_.FullName -force) $dest_flnm = $_.FullName.replace($src_str, $dest_str) $dest_fl = (Get-Item $dest_flnm -force) # Currently, this will cause an error if a file exists in src directory but not dest directory # I don't know how to write this so that it can error more than once depending on verbosity # like the rest of the script and it's not a priority for me. if ($verbose>1){ Write-Host "$src_fl ?? $dest_fl" } If ( Compare-Object $src_fl $dest_fl -Property Name, Length ) { # List files not matching Write-Host "src- $src_fl" Write-Host "dest- $dest_fl" # if verbosity <0, fail fast, otherwise provide maximum insight (logging) if ($verbose -lt 0){ throw "Verbosity set to intolerant; First mismatch found- $src_fl" } else{ $mismatches+=1 } } } Write-Host "$i files compared" if ($mismatches -gt 0){ throw "Mismatching files found: $mismatches" } } # Diff directories in both directions to identify differences in file names Write-host "$(Get-Date) - Comparing $backup_src and $deploy_dst (->)" Compare_Directory $backup_src $deploy_dst Write-host "$(Get-Date) - Comparing $backup_src and $deploy_dst (<-)" Compare_Directory $deploy_dst $backup_src Write-host "$(Get-Date) - Comparing $deploy_src\bin $deploy_dst\bin (->)" Compare_Directory $deploy_src\bin $deploy_dst\bin Write-host "$(Get-Date) - Comparing $deploy_src\bin $deploy_dst\bin (->)" Compare_Directory $deploy_dst\bin $deploy_src\bin