I’ve been using Syncthing for some time now to backup my family and friends notebooks, tablets and phones.
I replaced FolderSync on Android (server was Filezilla server) and SyncBack (pro) on Windows notebooks with Syncthing.
It’s working fine, just not perfect as It’s syncing files that change constantly and don’t even need to be synced at all.
I’ve found some references about .stignore and .stglobalignore but I’m a bit lost…
This is what I would like to achieve:
Sync (send only on device and recieve only on ‘server’) a ‘root’ folder and control the ignored files and folders from the ‘server’ side.
I found a list of common files and directory’s most people don’t want, but I would like to be able to fine tune this when It’s already in production as I don’t have device access all the time (some I see only a couple of times a year) and don’t want to bother the end users with TeamViewer sessions.
Is this possible with Syncthing? if so could you explain how to set this up (where to place wich files and what settings do I need (if any).
On the receive-only side you can only affect what you receive, not what the other side sends. Your ignore patterns affect you only.
But the method that you’re referring to (".stglobalignore") goes like this:
Have an .stignore that include some other file:
#include .stglobalignore
In that file, write your ignore patterns. Since it is just a normal file (as opposed to .stignore which Syncthing treats specially) it can be synced, so shared between all devices.
In your case this doesn’t help: you are receive only so any changes to you make won’t sync anyway.
You could put the “global” ignore file in some other folder and refer to that on the other side. It seems a bit fragile and non-intuitive though.
It works fine for me though (which obviously doesn’t say anything about being intuitive ): I use “folder-global” ignore patterns that reside in a .stignore-shared file in the folder root and “totally global” patterns a .stignore-global file in my “program-data” shared folder (stuff like keepassxc-db, Syncthing global ignores, etc go in there). Typically I ignore stuff like temporary files, .git, … in the global file and the rest in the “folder-shared” file, with typically no patterns in the normal .stignore (except for “selective sync”, e.g. not syncing everything on the phone due to space restrictions).
): I use “folder-global” ignore patterns that reside in a