How to get tmutil compare to show results deeper than root directory

Question

When I use tmutil compare, I only get a list of items in the root folder:

- 10.0K                         /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.DS_Store
- 992B                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.OSInstallerMessages
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware
- 1.6M                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.TempReceipt.bom
- 172B                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.abackblaze
- 521B                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.bzvol
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.file
- 424B                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.installer-compatibility
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/.vol
- 3.5G                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/Library
- 1.9G                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/System
- 33.6G                         /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/Users
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/Volumes
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/cores
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/mnt
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/opt
- 1.6G                          /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/private
- 0B                            /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/sw
- 97.1M                         /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD - Data/usr
- 500.6M                        /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Recovery
+ 84.3G                         /System/Volumes/Data
- 12.1G                         /Volumes/Time Machine Backups/Backups.backupdb/Andrew’s MacBook Air/2020-06-02-183525/Macintosh HD
+ 500.7M                        /Volumes/Recovery

When I've seen other posts in this forum and elsewhere, the output from tmutil compare has been a list of files within subdirectories of the root folder.

Is there something I could do differently?

Edit:

To clarify, this backup's copy of the /Users folder differs from the computer by 33.6G - but I get no info about what makes up that difference. I could run tmutil compare again to compare the /Users folder on the computer with the backup, and so on down through the folder hierarchy until I found out what files were added/missing/changed. But is there some way of getting this recursive process to run without having to manually compare folder after folder?

Can you define the root folder? Time machine is set up to handle many machines in one disk, so it translates and relocates things to not collide. Basically, what are you actually trying to do that seeing the root folder will enable? — bmike, Jun 03 '20 at 15:51
I'd like an output at the granular level of files, rather than just folders. So I can see here that the latest snapshot backup has a difference of 33.6GB from the current state of the computer in the /Users folder - but what files make up this difference? Do I have to manually run tmutil compare against each sub-folder of /Users to find out more? The output goes no further down through the folder hierarchy than the contents of "/Volumes/Macintosh HD - Data/" - and I'd like to see information from the layers below that. Does it make more sense what I'm asking now? — AWO, Jun 03 '20 at 20:26
OK - I understand now what you seek. You’ll need a different tool to get you that data. I’ve suggested the one I use - it’s amazing and saves me lots of time managing my various machines and backups. — bmike, Jun 07 '20 at 17:48

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 07 '20 at 17:47

This tool is designed to operate on the entire backup set. Rather than try to bend it to your will, may I suggest a tool that does precisely what you seek, does it fast and in the background and can even help you track changed files when your backup drive is not mounted.

https://www.soma-zone.com/BackupLoupe/

The loupe tool works best for me when I track deleted files, so once you get a couple of your recent backups scanned, you can explore what’s changing hour by hour or day by day. There’s no need to let it run over dozens of backups for you to get a feeling if it will work well for the question you pose here. Long term, you’ll want to decide if you let it index in the background and keep the indexes always up to date or launch it only when you want deep scans and then let it run to get your analysis up to date.

Due to the limitations of tmutil compare this tool implements their own scanner since as you point out, the main tool is good to know the entire change load and not focus on specific parts.

I'm checking it out! Weird though because I'm sure I've seen posts of output from tmutil compare that go into way more granular detail than I'm able to get. EG: https://blog.macsales.com/39968-tech-101-everything-you-need-to-know-to-verify-time-machine-backups/ — AWO, Jun 07 '20 at 23:19
Yah - 2017 version and I just can’t wait hours for the compare. YMMV and I hope someone has a better answer on how to use it. It’s possible and I’d love to learn more @AWO - just not been useful for me so I bring other tools to bear that I’m very happy with. — bmike, Jun 08 '20 at 03:12

How to get tmutil compare to show results deeper than root directory

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