Hey,
So if I understand correctly, Syncthing allows you to keep in continuous sync two files on different computers?
Would it work between a file on Windows and a file on Linux?
I read that it’s automatic and continuous. So it’s really just like using a cloud service like Google Docs, as soon as you save it in one location, it is immediately, automatically updated on the other?
And it operates over Git, is that correct? So all we might have to do is tell Syncthing on two separate machines that some file is the file to be linked to the other file on the other machine?
Thanks very much.
Yes, though it’s not limited to two parties. You can form clusters potentially spanning dozens of devices (your hardware is the limit).
Yes.
Not really like a cloud service, because those use central (always online) servers to store your data. So any device can download from those servers. Syncthing on the other hand is decentralized with equal devices - there is no central storage (unless you host one yourself). So you must have at least two devices online at the same time, to allow sync. Data is only stored on devices you have installed syncthing on, no third parties.
But yes, it runs in the background and updates files on other devices, when they are changed somewhere.
No, syncthing doesn’t use Git in any way (well, except for it’s source code on Github, but that’s unrelated to the application itself). The protocol used internally is custom (and documented here, though that is highly technical and not for users to understand)
Syncthing operates in folders. Those can be added via the web ui and represent actual folders on the filesystem. Folders can be added in any place (where the application has read-write access) and it can also use pre-existing folders anywhere on the filesystem. Everything (except for ignored files) inside these folders is synchronized. Over the UI you can select devices and folders to synchronize.
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Also, it’s not like google docs. It creates a new file and replaces the old, so files don’t change in place. Also, its not immediate immediate, there are potentially tens of seconds of latency in some cases.
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