Sync laptop desktop
It is not always possible to copy one computer's drive to the other. For example, some files must differ on both machines, or respective updates do not match.
Unison
You need to have ssh on both machines, and (the same version of) unison installed on both machines (your laptop and desktop). Then with a few simple commands you can synchronise directories, and in a GUI you can select which things you wish to have synchronised and which not. You can also resolve conflicts.
~/.unison/electra.prf (laptop)
root = /home/hugo root = ssh://pyros//home/hugo follow = Path school include common
~/.unison/pyros.prf (desktop)
root = /home/hugo root = ssh://electra//home/hugo follow = Path school include common
~/.unison/common
ignore = Regex .*(cache|Cache|te?mp|history|thumbnails).* ignore = Name sylpheed.log* ignore = Name unison.log ignore = Name .ICEauthority ignore = Name .Xauthority ignore = Path {.songinfo,.radinfo} ignore = Path .adesklets ignore = Path .Azureus ignore = Path .forward ignore = Path adesklets ignore = Path .ethereal ignore = Path .sheep ignore = Path .xinitrc ignore = Path .config ignore = Path .xscreensaver ignore = Path .xawtv ignore = Path .radio ignore = Path .forward ignore = Path .dc++ ignore = Path .quodlibet ignore = Path .tvtime ignore = Path .config/graveman ignore = Path .xmodmap ignore = Path .java ignore = Path .tvlist* ignore = Path .thumbnails ignore = Path .ssh ignore = Path .viminfo ignore = Path .vim/tmp ignore = Path Desktop ignore = Path .wine* ignore = Path motion ignore = Path src/ufobot/test_pipe ignore = Path tmp ignore = Path local ignore = Path books ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/*/Cache* ignore = Path .liferea/cache ignore = Path .liferea/mozilla/liferea/Cache ignore = Path .sylpheed-*/*.bak ignore = Path .sylpheed-*/folderlist.xml* ignore = Path .liferea/new_subscription ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/*/lock ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/*/XUL.mfasl ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/*/xpti.dat ignore = Path .mozilla/firefox/*/cookies.txt ignore = Path .xbindkeysrc ignore = Path .unison/ar* ignore = Path .gaim/icons ignore = Path .gaim/blist.xml ignore = Path .asoundrc ignore = Path .maillog ignore = Path .openoffice2/.lock
As you can see, there are two different profiles, one for running from the laptop, and one for running the desktop. Files are posted here as example, they are nowhere essential for your configuration.
Bash aliases were created for quick usage. One example is:
alias unisync="unison-gtk2 electra -contactquietly -logfile /dev/null"
This starts unisync using profile 'electra', for when running the laptop.
A line in ~/Desktop/autostart automates the process when wanting to sync desktop with laptop:
xterm -e 'ping -q -W 2 -c 2 pyros && unison-gtk2 electra -contactquietly -logfile /dev/null && gxmessage -buttons no:0,yes:1 Syncing done. Shutdown pyros? || ssh pyros sudo halt' &
Limitations
You can also use this tool with NFS shares, but you may find that it is slower, because using the ssh solution it asks the other side to check for updates, and thus not requiring network traffic for that part of the syncing process.
If you are using a ssh port different from the default (22), for example 1022, use this line in your prf file:
sshargs = -p 1022
If you are using symbolic links and want to synchronise your files on a vfat system (usb key for example), unison will not accept them and generate errors. You cannot just tell unison you do not want symbolic links, you have to name them all. To find them on your system, you can run
find ~/folder -type l
Unison is very sensitive and requires the exact same versions on client and server. Also, unison must be compiled against the same OCaml version on all peers too. Making it highly unfeasible for a heterogeneous network.
rsync
See rsync
rdiff-backup
The following tool was used with the following backup script:
#!/bin/sh mount /bak #mount /boot mount /mnt/win rdiff-backup \ --exclude-regexp 'cache$' \ --exclude-regexp '(?i)/te?mp$' \ --exclude /mnt \ --exclude /vol \ --exclude /bak \ --exclude /usr/media \ --exclude /usr/media/misc \ --exclude /usr/lib \ --exclude /tmp \ --exclude /var/dl \ --exclude /var/spool \ --exclude /var/cache \ --exclude /proc \ --exclude /dev \ --exclude /sys \ / /bak/sys echo "----------------------------------------" echo " * Listing increments of backup" echo "----------------------------------------" rdiff-backup --list-increments /bak/sys echo "" echo "----------------------------------------" echo " * Removing backups older than 5 Weeks" echo "----------------------------------------" rdiff-backup --force --remove-older-than 5W /bak/sys ##Force is necessary because: #Fatal Error: Found 2 relevant increments, dated: #Sat Apr 10 12:39:24 2004 #Sat Apr 17 04:15:01 2004 #If you want to delete multiple increments in this way, use the --force. echo "" echo "----------------------------------------" echo " * Disk usage after backup" echo "----------------------------------------" df -h umount /bak #umount /boot umount /mnt/win
Syncthing
See syncthing