Is it possible to get Syncthing to do versioning on a host mount volume?
I’m pretty new to docker but I have it in my home lab, and I’m trying to get a light weight toolset together. So far I’ve got some pretty cool stuff going (Homarr, Komodo, Etherpad, watchtower, etc).
I’d like a lightweight file upload/download like FileBrowser but with simple file versioning. I came across Syncthing and its perfect but because the Syncthing container thinks the host mount for FileBrowser’s files is local, it wont version it.
Everything I’ve read wants me to spin up two Syncthings, one as a remote and one as a local but it can’t be that complex. Should I be pointing Syncthing at FileBrowser as a remote device, instead of mapping the same host directory to FileBrowser and SyncThing?
Welcome here @AutomationAndy !
Versioning only works for changes happening on other devices, regardless of mount points etc.
Hey thanks for the quick response! Technically its an abstracted device that docker positions as a local device, right?
So I think it’ll work by making the Syncthings container point to the FileBrowser container as a remote device, and removing the volume mount to the host on the Syncthings container so it doesn’t think that volume is local. I’ll try that out, since its way easier than finding a dockerized file tool that natively does versioning. All the apps I’ve found hook it into their premium featureset. Such a simple thing that has been giving me such a pain to deploy.
When in Syncthing you create what is called a “Folder”, it asks you for a path in the filesystem where the contents of that “Folder” shall be. That must be a path which is valid on the device/container/vm/whatever Syncthing is running on. The path might be a local directory or a directory which ends up somewhere else by means of NFS, Samba, sshfs, container host or whatever. Syncthing does not care and always considers it local.
I think you should do some experimentation before you ask more questions. 
Hey AutomationAndy,
I’m sure the forum would be happy to help. Maybe zoom out a little and explain your use-case, what you’re trying to accomplish, a little about your environment (machines and OS types).
Is this the FileBrowser that you’re referring to? Also you mention some other apps and premium feature sets you’ve found that may address your use-case. Which ones?
From what you wrote, it seems to me, that you don’t know/understand how Syncthing and its versioning works.
Syncthing is for synchronizing files between two instances/devices.
If you just run one Syncthing instance, it does absolutely nothing, apart from wasting CPU, RAM and Disk.
You need at least 2 instances/devices.
Versioning works by moving the current file to the versioning directory before that file is replaced with the newest version of that file, which was changed on another device/instance.