A Tale of Two Computers

July 9, 2023 2:02 PM

Looking for an easier way to sync two computers on the same network, one linux and one windows.

I have a directory of teaching/tutoring stuff I need to keep in sync. My daily driver is a Windows 11 machine. My office/tutoring room computer is running Ubuntu 23.04 but with KDE.

My current method is to transfer files via HD which works well except it's slow and I'm doing more work on my office computer. That, of course makes it harder to keep in sync.

I'm not afraid of the CLI and an eternity ago (10+ years ago) I figured out how to mount my Windows computer and view it on my Fedora laptop using SMB (I think). Part of me just wants a set and nearly forget process and the more sadistic part wants to learn (I've also compiled from source in the past).

I came across Syncthing on a Google search but was wondering if there was another way. I'm aware of rsync, but never used it.

Bonus points if it could sync that directory to the HD when plugged into the linux box. Then it could be a proper backup not something that needs to travel.

posted by kathrynm to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

I use Resilio Sync for pretty much this. It's free & the setup on Windows is crazy easy. Linux is a bit more complicated (of course!), but the documentation is clear and complete. There are iOS and Android apps if you want to include your phone in the sync.
posted by Frayed Knot at 2:33 PM on July 9, 2023 [2 favorites]

Is there any reason not to use one of the cloud services that's designed to do this?

Dropbox was the OG and has a Linux client
Pcloud is a more affordable one (they offer lifetime plans that go on-sale a few times a year) that also has a Linux client. Their free plan is 10gb.
posted by noloveforned at 2:51 PM on July 9, 2023 [1 favorite]

I just use a simple backup script using rsync - something like:

rsync -ahv --progress /Users/whatevernot/source foobar:/media/whatevernot/backup/

The "-a" flag means 'archive' mode, the "-h" flag means human readable output and "-v" is verbose. I use "--progress" to get info as the sync happens.

Next up is the source location (the directory '...source' on a Mac) and the final parameter is the destination, which is on the machine called 'foobar' and located in the '...backup' directory (on linux).

Since rsync scans both source and destination, it only copies over anything new/changed, so it's pretty efficient.

I run the script occasionally - it's also pretty easy to put it on a 'cron' job.
posted by whatevernot at 3:05 PM on July 9, 2023

I found Unison to be a whole lot more foolproof than a two-way rsync personally.
posted by supercres at 3:08 PM on July 9, 2023

I like Syncthing for this. I'm not intimidated by rsync and I use it for a lot of other things but Syncthing tends to just work for this without a lot of tinkering (and without the risk of oops deleting something you need).
posted by pullayup at 3:46 PM on July 9, 2023 [4 favorites]

Freefilesync (free open source program) and map a drive from one to the other. probably less then 30 seconds to setup.
posted by chasles at 4:09 PM on July 9, 2023