I have Syncthing set up with some shares that use a single “Ignore All” directory as their sync location. The directory has a .stignore file with a single entry “*”
I use them on my “Introducer” when I want to easily add nodes to pools without the content being on the “Introducer”.
This allows me to easily add nodes to shares in a way that scales without needing space for the shares on my laptop but the out of sync warnings are a bit annoying. After reading how sync specific file with syncthing? #2546 I started wondering about a Watcher feature.
My idea is a node connects to the pool as a client, does not download files but keeps a copy of the global state. Ideally the other nodes would be aware the client is connected but not keeping sync so that it isn’t listed as “Out of Sync” in the GUI. The user could then choose to download a specific file and have the blocks pulled on demand.
I was thinking this download would be a one way transfer i.e. a dialog asks where to save and once all the blocks are pulled Syncthing forgets about the file/directory all together.
Another option might be that the standard folder structure is used but only manual scans done with deletes ignored. Honestly though, the selective sync feature that is being worked on would be better than this option in my opinion.
Does anyone else think this might be useful? I especially think I would use it on my phone.