New folder type: Transfer

I use Syncthing to transfer bulky files to and from a friend. It would be very useful to have a special folder type for this with “move” semantics: When I create a file and it is synced to the/all targets, it should automatically be delete on my side. Same for the other direction. With the current version, the file is using space on my side until the receiving user moves it out of the Syncthing folder.

Also the current situation is only practical for 2 parties. With more than one recipient, nobody knowns when to delete the file. A transfer/move semantic would solve this.

What still would be unsolved is to selectively send to one of several recipients without have a separate folder for each pair of users.

A new folder type is a significant change. I’m also very sceptical of settings that cause Syncthing to automatically delete files saved into a folder.

This thing could also be constructed by a script that checks sync status and then adds completed files to ignore patterns before deleting them.

I’m probably naive about this, but wouldn’t “rsync $1 && rm $1” do the job more simply?

Not when you want to send files between computers located on the opposite side of the globe :wink:. Syncthing’s ability to connect, keep the connection, and reconnect even in the worst circumstances is its great advantage. Not to mention that all of the above is done 100% automatically, with no user intervention required.

2 Likes

All of that is available in a form of libraries you can use in your own project, or atleast that’s the goal.

Yes - I’ve never figured out the elegant way to do this with Syncthing without manual intervention.

this is basically the same idea as the “cloud sync” folder type idea i had. i think a lot of people feel a need for this basic idea.

Also, not entirely different from my request: