Syncany

non-encrypted storage also supported?

Asked by Eric Levy

Hello,

I am a developer who found this project after searching in frustration for an open-source solution to bidirectional file synchronization over a network.

I reviewed the main web site and casually browsed the trunk.

Before anything else, I have to understand something: It appears from the literature and the code that the entire design of the project revolves around the idea of combining the concepts of revision management and encryption under the same umbrella. In this understanding, the project does *not* aim at all to perform bidirectional file synchronization, a scheme where two repositories would be kept synchronized as independently usable file trees.

Did I get this correct?

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John David Chibuk
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Best John David Chibuk (chibuk-jd) said : 		#1

You are correct. As I was in search for the bidirectional system however
the development so far is of the later.

John David Chibuk
Telephone: +16478956107
On Oct 23, 2012 6:56 PM, "Eric Levy" <email address hidden>
wrote:

> New question #212148 on Syncany:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/syncany/+question/212148
>
> Hello,
>
> I am a developer who found this project after searching in frustration for
> an open-source solution to bidirectional file synchronization over a
> network.
>
> I reviewed the main web site and casually browsed the trunk.
>
> Before anything else, I have to understand something: It appears from the
> literature and the code that the entire design of the project revolves
> around the idea of combining the concepts of revision management and
> encryption under the same umbrella. In this understanding, the project
> does *not* aim at all to perform bidirectional file synchronization, a
> scheme where two repositories would be kept synchronized as independently
> usable file trees.
>
> Did I get this correct?
>
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you are a member of
> Syncany Team, which is an answer contact for Syncany.
>
> --
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~syncany-team
> Post to : <email address hidden>
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~syncany-team
> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>

Revision history for this message
Eric Levy (8mabmzqcnyc1g4i7tjyvuprzli-contact-clubl5mz6ldresgvtiayqw6wzb) said : 		#2

Thanks for the clear answer.

That's disappointing to me because it isn't what I wanted.

I will say three things, for what they're worth:

1) There are probably more people interested in bidirectional file transfer than in what Syncany is currently aiming to do.

2) Syncany so far seems to have a clean and elegant user interface that is largely independent of what the structure is of the remote storage, be it encrypted chunks or regular copies of files. If someone is able to contribute a library-level component for the latter, and if the core architecture is properly modularized, Syncany could also solve this problem, leveraging the strong UI to make it an effective solution for either case. I wish I had knowledge about file synchronization in order to make such a contribution myself, but I don't.

3) The Syncany web page is currently the first result in the Google search "network file sync open source". It's great that the project was able to make the first hit in a Google search, but actually that's not an accurate description of the project. Equally misleading, in my judgment, is the web page itself, which distinctly says it is a file synchronization tool. Syncany is rather a version concurrency system with a strong UI and support for encryption, and so that's how it should present itself.

With respect to points (1) and (2), Philipp and the team obviously can and should develop whatever project interests them most, but if there is an interest in extending the project as I have described, it would definitely be a valuable contribution to the open-source software community.

Revision history for this message
Eric Levy (8mabmzqcnyc1g4i7tjyvuprzli-contact-clubl5mz6ldresgvtiayqw6wzb) said : 		#3

Thanks John David Chibuk, that solved my question.