Last yr, I introduced you 19 days of new (to you) productiveness instruments for 2019. This yr, I am taking a distinct strategy: constructing an atmosphere that can will let you be extra productive within the new yr, utilizing instruments you could or might not already be utilizing.
Syncing recordsdata with Synthing
Setting up a brand new machine is a ache. We all have our “standard setups” that we copy from machine to machine. And through the years, I’ve used a number of methods to maintain them in sync between machines. In the outdated days (and it will inform you how outdated I’m), it was with floppy disks, then Zip disks, USB sticks, SCP, Rsync, Dropbox, ownCloud—you identify it. And they by no means appeared to work proper for me.
Then I stumbled upon Syncthing.
Syncthing is a light-weight, peer-to-peer file-synchronization system. You needn’t pay for a service, you do not want a third-party server, and it is quick. Much quicker, in my expertise, than lots of the “big names” in file synchronization.
Syncthing is offered for Linux, MacOS, Windows, and a number of other flavors of BSD. There can also be an Android app (however nothing official for iOS but). There are even helpful graphical frontends for all the above (though I am not going to cowl these right here). On Linux, there are packages accessible for many distributions, so set up may be very simple.
When you begin Syncthing the primary time, it launches an online browser to configure the daemon. There’s not a lot to do on the primary machine, however it’s a good probability to poke across the person interface (UI) a little bit bit. The most necessary factor to see is System ID underneath the Actions menu within the top-right.
Once the primary machine is ready up, repeat the set up on the second machine. In the UI, there will probably be a button on the lower-right labeled Add Remote Device. Click the button, and you may be introduced with a field to enter a Device ID and a Name. Copy and paste the Device ID from the primary machine and click on Save.
You ought to see a pop-up on the primary node asking so as to add the second. Once you settle for it, the brand new machine will present up on the lower-right of the primary one. Share the default listing with the second machine. Click on Default Folder after which click on the Edit button. There are 4 hyperlinks on the high of the pop-up. Click on Sharing after which choose the second machine. Click Save and have a look at the second machine. You ought to get a immediate to just accept the shared listing. Once you settle for that, it’ll begin synchronizing recordsdata between the 2 machines.
Test it out by copying a file to the default listing (/your/residence/Share) on one of many machines. It ought to present up on the opposite one in a short time.
You can add as many directories as you need or have to the sharing, which is fairly helpful. As you possibly can see within the first picture, I’ve one for myconfigs—that is the place I hold my configuration recordsdata. When I get a brand new machine, I simply set up Syncthing, and if I tune a configuration on one, I haven’t got to replace all of them—it occurs mechanically.
