Modifying perms on a receive only copy

Support
1

Hi All,

I am diving into a syncthing configuration here and have been looking at various githug/forum and FAQ posts. Hoping someone has experienced the same configuration and can advise what I may be missing.

  • Two devices Synology as the source (send only) and Linux as the destination (read only)
  • People work on the source files, these are replicated fine to the destination

The destination device to share the folders out and needs permissions reconfigured on the share and folders ready for a cutover. Adjusting the permissions on the destination works as appropriate, although i’ll need to overwrite permissions on any sub folders and files as these are changed as files are updated/modified at the destination.

  • What is syncthing doing in the background regarding this, Is it attempting to pull each file each fresh across the network and increasing load or is it just noted as different?
  • The locally changed items indicates that the folders and files touched are all different, i kind of expected this, does this have implication to the sync as it still is copying/updating files as needed?
  • Would setting the ignore permissions flag on the receiving configuration suppress this notification and would it reduce load of processing for replication if its increased because of this?

Due to the large share, I’m cautious of the additional processing required further slowing down replication, it already takes a long time to scan then copy changes across. With permission changes across the whole synced share I am expecting would significantly slow this down.

Thoughts would be appreciated!

Thanks!

2

Regardless of the scenario, Syncthing only ever re-transfers file contents if they changed. If both files are equal except for “metadata” like permissions or mod. time, only those are adjusted.

Files that are locally changed can’t be synced. As any remote change would overwrite the local change, but the local change can’t be sent to remotes (because the folder is configured as receive-only). You’ll have to take manual action to remedy that.

If you know that permissions will be different between devices, then yes you should ignore permissions. Usually changing perms doesn’t change mod. time, so there won’t be any locally changed items then.

3

Thanks Simon, I appreciate your reply. Great, i’d have expected trying to resend the files where only the permissions have changed on the destination side would bog things down excessively.

It sounds like I’d be in a better place ignoring permissions on the destination side. Would i be right hoping that also, clears some of the noise that the files are different to the source when its only the permissions?

That works for me, as I don’t need the destination files written back to source, we only want a single source of truth until we are ready to flip.

Thanks!

4

Yes.

5

Thanks for your reply, i’ll look to have this updated.

6

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