Does old ever clobber new?

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The deadliest error I’ve experienced with btsync is when an old version of a file replaces a newer version. You lose data. In btsync, I’m able to recover everything via close inspection of the app’s history tab in Windows and the contents of the large .SyncArchive folder–a tedious but straightforward procedure.

I’m just now testing Pulse more extensively, and I want to ask if people have encountered this particular old-replaces-new glitch. If so, what’s a good procedure for restoring stuff? I’m a bit concerned to only have Pulse save the last 5 versions. Also, it’s easy to see in btsync if old has replaced new by eyeballing the history tab to see which clients have replaced files. You do have to first suspect the problem. I wonder if Pulse has symptoms or shows signs when the problem has happened so that you don’t go too long before restoring stuff.

Perhaps I’m asking about a problem that doesn’t exist, but I’ve been burned on a few occasions by btsync, so I’m kind of paranoid about old overwriting new and going undetected.

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It uses lamport clocks and does not handle conflicts so it all depends.

Let’s say current file version is 5, and all nodes are in sync. A looses connectivity, modifies the file 10 times making the version 15 In the meanwhile B or C modify the file once making the version 6 A comes back online, version 15 > 6, hence everyone accepts A’s and changes made by B or C are lost.

Same works the other way around though, it just depends on who makes more changes.

Not sure about this but it could be true that there is no conflict resolution: A B and C have file with version 5 A goes offline, edits the file once, bumping version to 6 While A is offline B or C modifies the file once bumping the version to 6 When A will come back online it will think that it’s in sync as versions match, where it might not be in reality.

EDIT: lamport not vector clocks!

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I just want to mention that you can ask Pulse to save a cascading history instead of a fixed number of versions. It’s a per-folder setting.

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