I happen to know about rsyn, and I use rsync to sync between my mac and a linux server as follows.
rsync -r -t -v MAC LINUX rsync -r -t -v LINUX MAC
I expected to run the first command to sync, but I needed the second command also when a change is made in LINUX.
Am I missing something? Does rsync have an option to sync between two directories?
Answers:
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Method 1
You want bi-directional sync. Take a look at unison, which does this: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
For example, on Debian/Ubuntu:
$ sudo apt-get install unison $ unison MAC/ LINUX/
If you have trouble with permissions (example ext4 -> FAT):
$ unison -perms 0 vlc-2.2.0/ /media/sf_vlc/vlc Contacting server... Looking for changes Reconciling changes vlc-2.2.0 vlc new dir ----> / [f] Proceed with propagating updates? [] y Propagating updates
Method 2
It has been claimed that rsync was not recommended for two-way sync by its developers, but a source for this statement is lacking.
The already recommended unison utility will be a better solution for you.
Also keep in mind that you probably have to deal with a lot of Mac specific HFS+ stuff when using rsync. So be sure to use a properly patched rsync3 on the Mac or expect problems with modification dates (when using the Mac OS X provided rsync 2.6.9.)
If you don’t know how to build a properly patched rsync 3 for the Mac, get mlbackup which includes just that. (Full disclosure: I am the author of mlbackup.)
Get it from github and be sure to download the full package from the downloads. (The mlbackup repo does not include rsync 3 which you want in this case.)
http://github.com/MacLemon/mlbackup
Method 3
I coded this small tool for my own needs:
https://github.com/dooblem/bsync
It uses rsync and can handle file moves.
Method 4
You should also take a look at csync, which is open source and offers native bi-directional syncing.
FYI – as far as I know – csync is developed by people from the Samba team. And knowing that the Samba team also developed rsync, I take this as a token of quality.
Method 5
Another excellent tool for bidirectional sync…..freefilesync
Method 6
Another system that provides for synchronization of directories in both directions is SyncThing (Github) – “a continuous file synchronization program. It synchronizes files between two or more computers in real time, safely protected from prying eyes”. There’s also apps for mobile devices.
All methods was sourced from stackoverflow.com or stackexchange.com, is licensed under cc by-sa 2.5, cc by-sa 3.0 and cc by-sa 4.0