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After repeatedly losing data on encrypted drives due to some trivial combination of software and hardware failure, I would like to know if there is a simple tool that keeps local folders synchronized. Like a local "cloud" service that runs on one computer and synchronizes any changes in one folder to the other folder as soon as both folders are available. That way I can keep a copy of the most important files on a different hard-drive.

Earthliŋ
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You need rsync my friend; check out the man page and do some research for some more information. Rsync will copy files between directories in a very smart way; only the changes are copied.

So a one-liner like rsync -a /path/to/importantfolder/ /path/to/backupdrive/importantbackup/

Look through the nan pages for the syntax to get exactly what you want.

Then you can wrap this in a bash script and run it as a cron job or run it manually when you hook up your harddrive.

This is the roll your own solution. If your not a fan I'm sure someone has already come up with a canned solution for this.

Dan
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  • Looks promising, many thanks. rsync going once, going twice, ... Let's see if there are more suggestions. – Earthliŋ Nov 08 '13 at 21:58
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Deja-Dup. It's included in the default distribution with the name "Backup". By the way, you are looking for a backup solution, not just a sync client.

Anonymous
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  • +1 for backup rather than sync. Sync means that if your first folder gets messed up, when you connect the other drive it will get clobbered. – Mechanical snail Nov 09 '13 at 22:03
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If you want syncing folders on different computers (either in local network or over internet) to back up, you can use Bittorrent Sync (http://www.bittorrent.com/sync). It uses bittorrent protocol, which allows syncing rather big files quickly. To use it for back up you should install it on both (or more) computers, choose a folder to back up and share it to other (others) computers like read only. It is also cross platform (Linux, Win, Mac, Android).

eyeinthebrick
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