Linux – Easiest way to sync two folders

linuxmacrsyncsshsynchronization

What's the easiest way to sync the contents of a folder on a Mac OSX machine with another folder on a Linux server?

You can use scp:

scp -r /path/to/folder/ username@IP_ADDRESS:/path/to/sync/with

But scp is slow and copies all files, regardless of whether or not they exist on the server. What are some other options?

Best Answer

install something like homebrew or macports to install rsync on the mac.. and use rsync

rsync -av /path/to/folder/ username@IP_ADDRESS:/path/to/sync/with

Related Solutions

Linux – sync local OSX with remote linux server using ftp via shell script

If it has to be FTP then AASync looks promising. It's a GUI based application but also can be scheduled and run in background. Maybe this is as good as being called by a shell.

Rsync vs SCP – Efficiently Copying Huge Files Between Remote Machines

This problem can be solved with rsync. At least this solution should be competitive in terms of performance.

First, rsync can be called from one of the remote systems to overcome the limitation in the inability to copy between two remote systems directly.

Second, encryption/decryption can be avoided by running rsync in Daemon Access mode instead of Remote Shell Access mode.

In daemon access mode rsync does not tunnel the traffic through an ssh connection. Instead it uses its own protocol on top of TCP.

Normally you run rsync daemon from inet.d or stand-alone. Anyway this requires root access to one of the remote systems. Assuming root access is not available, it is still possible to start up the daemon.

Start rsync daemon as a non-privileged user on the destination machine

ssh -i private_key ssh_user@destination-IP \
       "echo -e 'pid file = /tmp/rsyncd.pid\nport = 1873' > /tmp/rsyncd.conf

ssh -i private_key ssh_user@destination-IP \
       rsync --config=/tmp/rsyncd.conf --daemon

Actually copy the files

ssh -i private_key ssh_user@source_ip \
       "rsync [OPTIONS] source-path \
              rsync://ssh_user@destination-IP:1873:destination-path"

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Linux – sync local OSX with remote linux server using ftp via shell script

Rsync vs SCP – Efficiently Copying Huge Files Between Remote Machines

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