How to create Syncthing test environments

Howto
1

Here some tips to create syncthing test environments.

Multiple Test Instances

You can start multiple instances on the same machine. Every instance must used separate listening ports, e.g.: 22001, 22002 etc. Add all nodes with address/port e.g.: 127.0.0.1:2200x (local discovery doesn’t work within the same host).

To do this:

  • Set a different home directory for every instance
  • Start one instance and change settings, then start next instance etc.

Linux

Here a simple script to startup multiple instance with different home directories:

#!/bin/bash

# Change the path to syncthing binary here:
SYNCTHING_BIN=/home/syncthing/bin/syncthing

read -n1 -p "Start number? [1,2,3...]" NUMBER
echo

BASE_DIR=~/syncthing_test/instance${NUMBER}/
mkdir -p $BASE_DIR

(
    set -x
    HOME=${BASE_DIR}
    ${SYNCTHING_BIN} -home=${BASE_DIR}\syncthing_configs
)

Start the script and enter 1, setup the instance. Start in a other terminal, enter 2, etc.

You will get the following filesystem structure:

  • ~/syncthing_test/
    • instance1/
      • syncthing_configs/config.xml
    • instance2/
      • syncthing_configs/config.xml

e.g:

Windows

Here a batch file that starts two instances at once:

@echo off
prompt -$G
cd /d "%~dp0"

set syncthing_exe=D:\path\to\syncthing.exe

title syncthing test%1

if "%1"=="" (
    echo on
    @echo.
    @echo Start instance 01
    start cmd.exe /K "%~0" 01

    @echo.
    @echo Start instance 02
    start cmd.exe /K "%~0" 02

    @echo off
    echo.
    echo This window can be closed.
    pause
    goto:eof
)

REM Start one instance
echo on
set HOMEDRIVE=D:
set HOMEPATH=\synthing_test\instance%1
set USERPROFILE=%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%
set APPDATA=%USERPROFILE%\Roaming
set LOCALAPPDATA=%USERPROFILE%\Local

set COMPUTERNAME=%USERDOMAIN%_test%1
set USERDOMAIN_ROAMINGPROFILE=%USERDOMAIN%_test%1
set USERDOMAIN=%USERDOMAIN%_test%1

%syncthing_exe%
@pause

You must set syncthing_exe and you can change HOMEDRIVE and the start folder of HOMEPATH for your needs.

To cleanup the default Sync repository, adapt this batch:

@echo off
prompt -$G

title %0

set BASE=D:\synthing_test\instance

echo on

rmdir /q /s %BASE%01\Sync
del %BASE%01\Local\Syncthing\*.gz

@echo.

rmdir /q /s %BASE%02\Sync
del %BASE%02\Local\Syncthing\*.gz
@pause

Links

2

Creating a directory with many files:

mkdir manyfiles
cd manyfiles
for i in $(seq 1 999); do for j in $(seq 1 99); do touch $i-$j; done; done
ls | wc -

You can check if the file list is the same on both sides by creating a list, e.g. ls > list1 on the one side, ls > list2 on the other; at the end diff list1 list2.

Creating a directory with big files:

mkdir bigfiles
cd bigfiles
for i in $(seq 1 10); do dd if=/dev/urandom of=test-$i bs=1M count=1000; done
ls -l

You may wish to check the md5sum of files before and after sync to be certain here: md5sum * > list1 on Alice; md5sum * > list2 on Bob; diff list1 list2.

3

There’s a bunch of utilities and test scripts in https://github.com/calmh/syncthing/tree/master/integration as well.