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Synchronize Data Between Linux, OS X, and Windows?
aaaaaaargh! writes "I'm using a laptop with Ubuntu 8.04 for work, a netbook with Ubuntu 9.10 when I'm outside, Mac OS X 10.5 for hobby projects, and Windows XP for gaming. For backups, I'm currently using Jungle Disk and Apple's Time Machine, and I use a local svn repository for my work data. Now I need to frequently exchange and synchronize OpenOffice and Latex files and source code in various cross-platform programming languages between one machine and another. Options range from putting everything online (but Jungle Disk disks seem to be too slow for anything else than backup), storing my data on external media like USB sticks or SD cards, or working with copies by synchronizing folders over the network. I don't want to give my data away to some server outside without strong encryption (controlled by me, including the source code) and external media like USB sticks are a bit too fragile according to my taste. The solution should be reliable, relatively failsafe, as simple as possible, and allow me to continue to use Jungle Disk for backup. So what would you recommend?"
Set up one computer as a server and rsync/ssh to it with either a cron job or at your whim.
I like Unison for this sort of thing.
www.dropbox.com
https://www.dropbox.com/ will give you 2gb of free space. It'll keep all files in your "dropbox folder" synchronized on all computers where it is installed. It works on Linux, Mac, and Windows. A video on installing Dropbox on Linux from The Linux Journal's Shawn Powers is here: http://www.linuxjournal.com/video/dropbox-linux
I personally use Dropbox for a similar type of setup (Ubuntu 9.10, OS X 10.6, XP). It uses SSL, but would most likely not meet your requirements of allowing you control of the source code that sits on their servers. It provides 2 GB of storage for free with the option to upgrade to 50 or 100 GB for $9.99 or $19.99 respsectively.
Three options that I use, or have used, are rsync, Chronosync and Jungle Disk.
Jungle Disk is the best solution if you have more money than time and can rely on being online a reasonably good percentage of the time. In the Jungle Disk settings, you can specify a certain portion of your disk to be used as an offline cache. Jungle Disk will then keep downloaded files in that disk cache, so you don't have to worry about the download speed so much, assuming you have the disk space available for the cache. If you don't have the disk space you'll need an online solution anyway.
Chronosync is Mac-based, but you can set it up to sync your files with your Windows and Linux computers. I recently bought it and haven't been through all its features yet, but I'm pretty sure it will do everything you need it to for about $40.
Rsync is of course great if you have the time and expertise to set it up. If you want to take the time to learn how it works, it's probably the best solution. OTOH I think Chronosync will do 99% of what rsync will do (from what I've seen) and is easier so I felt like the purchase price of Chronosync was worth it to me.
www.clarke.ca
Unison from UPenn http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
Works on all the platforms you mentioned... It can synchronize 2 disparate directory trees (you made updates to files A, B, C on one system and D, E, F on another system and want to merge them) and when it can't figure out what to do it asks you.
Set up one computer as a master repository and do everything over SVN+SSH.
Its what I do for the complete working set I have, passing between 3+ systems, is everything is through subversion over SSH to a backed-up system.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Mercurial for...
Windows
MacOS
For linux it should be in standard repos.
This way you can make changes on any of your systems and move them around as required, merging only when needed.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
If you don't mind having to manually synchronize (and even this limitation can be worked around with a careful set up), I'll say Unison over SSH. It handles circular version conflict resolution quite well, it's not too difficult to setup if in the chain there's only a windows machine (so you don't need to setup a ssh server on the win box) and it's serving me very well. I don't know about OSX but I think it should work there good enough.
It has a nice GUI too to manually resolve nasty conflicts (e.g. you modified a document in on two different environments before the sync.)
Been using it for awhile, works great windows, Linux and Mac. Also you don't have to place files in the dropbox folder, you can choose what folders to sync and backup. The also have zero knowledge of your files, which I find reassuring.
Half of writing history is hiding the truth.
I;m a little confused if you are syncronizing, mirroring or backing up data. the title says synch, but time machine and jungle disk are more for backup, and at most can be used for mirroring a master rather than synching.
If you want to backup, take a look at Crashplan. It's got two unique features the other plans lack. 1) you can backup to your own physical media, not theirs. This solves the problem of how do you backup and restore say 200GB of data in less than a month to a remote service. if the disk is yours you do the initial backup locally, them move the disk to the remote location for incremental backups. And then you do the reverse when you need to do more than in incremental restore. 2) they will sell you just the software-- a one time cost-- and you don't have to pay for a monthly remote service cost unless you want to. in which case you just backup to a freinds computer that is hosting your disk. Your data is both safe and remote (and encypted) but you can also go get the drive is if you need it using your toyota rather than the internet.
On the other hand if you want syncronization then look into Unison. It appears the source forge project is not highly maintained but also mature enough to work well. it is cross platform and scriptable.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
https://www.dropbox.com/
"Free for Windows, Mac, and Linux"
Creates a folder that is kept in sync between different computers. You can share files with other dropbox users too via shared folders. 2GB or so of space is free. It also keeps multiple versions of files so you can go back to a previous version of a file if you need to.
I don't have any affiliation with the company, other than being a satisfied user.
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
I use a local svn repository for my work data. Now I need to frequently exchange and synchronize OpenOffice and Latex files and source code in various cross-platform programming languages between one machine and another.
Am I missing something here? What doesn't SVN do that you need? Clients exist for all named platforms and it handles OO, Latex, and source code files very well.
Ask Slashdot: Where bad ideas meet poor googling skills.
That problem is mentioned all over the net, what's not mentioned is that the problem stems from transfers across different OSs.
A suggestion that might be a work-around : Sync Windows to a smb share, and use unison locally on that directory.
I am not using windows, so I'm fine. But, I also can't guarantee that my suggestion works.
Time Capsule works well.
Time capsules appear to have a MTBF of ~18 mos; the power supply dies. Apple will replace it via an APP-covered computer that uses it, but not if you crack the case to get the hard drive out.
So, either eat the $$ after 18 mos to save your 18 mos of backups, or give Apple your data for a refurbed unit, or find a backup solution for your backup solution.
I'm not buyin' another one.
They are way beyond dicks and would go to unbelievable lengths not to provide you with the service you bought. They are proactively scanning your account and will shut you down (without ANY warning whatsoever) for any media file that look suspicious (that includes mp3's you recorded yourself, as in you're the artist).
At first when they started cracking down on people using disk space they just shut down everybody that was using "too much" in their opinion (they were specifically offering 1500 GBytes space and 15000 GB/month transfer at the time - now they are "unlimited"). No questions, nothing. When customers asked they said they modified the TOS and say something like "you're not allowed to store files (!)". They also modified the TOS to say they don't have to notify you when they modify the TOS (which they had accordingly to the old TOS). And they didn't notify anybody, just shut down accounts randomly.
If you use their whois privacy feature (default on and unmanageable via web interface) they will spam your whois with advertising. They also don't seem to get what this feature actually means and insist that you own the domain which can't be true in any legal and meaningful way (yes, you are the owner in a field in their database but legally and as far as ICANN is concerned they are the owner).
The last drop in the bucket is the hidden 50000 files limit. The limit is absolutely secret and you can find about it only when you are kicked out or warned that you are above. However they would still insist the space is unlimited but the number of files is limited. And that it is for your own protection because fsck would take far too long if you have too many files. And that if you don't like it you should go away.
The idea here is only to pay, not to use what you paid for.
To put things into perspective a default installation of gallery with default plugins will eat about half of those 50000 files you are allowed. And use probably a couple tens of megs of space (keep in mind they were offering 1500GB before going unlimited which should mean for any reasonable person more than 1500GB). Oh, and people hosting linux distributions are abusers as well.
Of course they would work more flexibly than a random free provider (you get shell access but you need to fax your ID!). But between random crashes and this "anybody using is abusing" policy you won't get too far.
Stay away from bluehost.
If you're willing to pay, you could use Dropbox. If you keep it under 2 GB, it's free. Anything you drag into your dropbox gets synced to their servers and then synced back down to your other PCs you have linked to your dropbox account.
If you would prefer a roll your own solution, and are willing to build a server, then go look at Novell's iFolder http://www.ifolder.com./
Andy