from Hacker News

Are there any robust and easy ways to keep two or more computers in sync?

by thedriver on 2/1/23, 9:34 AM with 1 comments

For a long time I've been just using a laptop docked to peripherals, because I've found that keeping files synced between a desktop and laptop can become a burden. This setup works mostly fine, however, it would be nice to have a more powerful desktop at home. I've been wondering if there are any easy and reliable ways to keep the files between two machines in sync? I use Linux so I would basically want to sync the entire home directory. Or am I just better off continuing with my current laptop + dock setup, and upgrading to a more powerful laptop if needed?

All methods I've found have tradeoffs. Using network storage is one obvious solution, but it doesn't work well if you are in a place with bad connectivity. Manually syncing files with for example rsync and an external drive works, but it's time consuming.

  • by matthberg on 2/1/23, 9:52 AM

    Syncthing would be worth checking out. It seems like a good match for what you're mentioning, it automatically handles the networking and file change watching. I've used it in the past to back up photos from phones, and have a few notes on usage.

    For syncing two devices with intermittent connectivity (phone and laptop) you really want a third device (raspberry pi in my case) that's always online to act as a buffer and keep each end up to date. I also had some issues with device discovery taking a while though I'm fairly sure it was phone power saving settings that was messing it up. It's stable and popular software, definitely battle tested on Linux, though there are apps for all platforms.

    https://syncthing.net/