Base App: Synkron
Category: - Utilities
About:
Synkron is an application used to synchronize directories. It features a tabbed interface, so multiple syncs can be running at the same time, a blacklist of files or folders to be ignored, scheduling and backups, and recovery of files that were overwritten during a synchronization.
Download Link for non-upxed version
Download Link for upxed version
Edit: updated to development test 2. Made a change in launcher to ensure moving of settings occurs correctly (on slower machines the file never moved into the Synkron dir) Uploaded a non-upxed and a upxed version of the app. With minimal testing the upxed version seems to work fine, i'd like to get it more widely tested.
Edit: Dev Test 3
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Sweet choice, well done. That quit thing is still annoying me, but meh.
Anywho, very good job.
Thanks
And yeah, that is an odd bug, i'll look into that tomorrow.
Edit: I'm looking at it now, and I had no issues. After telling it not to display the message on exit, it no longer displays the message when I quit.
I'm sure it should be obvious to me, but what did you do before closing the app? And did you uncheck the box on the popup that displays on close, because it is checked by default. Unchecking it will make it display the message each time.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Open question to anyone who's used Microsoft's robocopy and this app...
How does this app stack up to robocopy? (Besides one having a GUI and the other being a command line app)
Cancer Survivors -- Remember the fight, celebrate the victory!
Help control the rugrat population -- have yourself spayed or neutered!
You just wait 'till Toucan 2! *starts to mutter again*
Sorry Steve.
Personally, I like Toucan better, just figured I'd offer some choices. Plus, this app is just limited to synchronization.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
maybe I needed a smilie in that, after all choice is always good
It is yet another "sync" app that doesn't actually sync.
The difference being the behaviour when you delete a file from one copy. Almost all syncer apps either put it back for you from the other one, or require that you explicitly state which tree is the master to be pushed to the other one.
I'll stick with Unison for now, ugly interface and all.
Yeah, it would be nice if you could set one as master, so deletes get recorded as well. Currently it puts the files back into whichever directory they were removed from.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
You don't even need to specify one as master.
It actually keeps track of what files were there last time it ran, including their states, attributes, etc. so it can definitively tell exactly what has changed in both replicas. It means that you can make arbitrary changes to both copies, and when you sync them, it will pass the changes both ways simultaneously, only stopping to ask you what you want to do when both copies of a file have changed - it even checks for the same change having been made to both so it can skip them.
That also means that it can handle multi-way syncs - you just sync each copy with another, and changes ripple through - so I use it between my work PC and flash drive, and between my home PC and flash drive, and changes anywhere get to all three places. Nice
Microsoft SyncToy does this also...I too was stuck with Unison, until I found SyncToy. Try it out!
What you say is true for the portable version of Synkron, which doesnt have such a feature.
However, in the non-portable version it is possible to remove a file or folder from every synced location through the contextual (right-click) menu of a file or folder in Windows Explorer. Just click Delete with Synkron from the menu or Rename with Synkron if you just want to rename it.
But you are absolutely right about the difference between syncing and copying contents from one folder to another according to date.
Welcome to PortableApps.com Matus, thank you for Synkron, it really is a great app. It would be great if there were some way to incorporate something similar to that feature into the portable version, without using the context menu, but I'm sure it would be a difficult task.
Thanks again for the great app.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I'm still looking for a good way to implement this feature. You never know what the next version brings
Very true. And just to let you know, keep me posted through those emails when you release a new version, or if a test release of a new version is available. I will test for you, and after a new release becomes official on your end, I will update my portable package to your latest version. I plan on continuing to support the portable package.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
I recently took an opportunity to tidy up a photo collection, which involved deleting around 1500 filed spread across around 90 directories, which I did on my USB drive, away from my main PC.
Using that feature, once I got back to base, I would have had to find each file again on my desktop, right click it, and select delete with Synkron?
The feature you refer to only allows you to do manual forced deletes, on a file by file basis, from your main PC. It does not allow you to just arbitrarily update one of the replicas any where, any time, and then sync it to the others, so, for the way I work with my replicas, it wouldn't have been appropriate.
So far as I have seen, from many many sync apps, the only way to actually do it is to maintain a database of how each replica looked, then you can accurately detect that a file has been removed from one, which allows you to know that the change is a delete from that one, rather than an add to the other one.
A database is exactly the thing I want to avoid.
Apart from that, you're quite right. This feature is not designed for such huge amount of files. Moreover, as you say, it only works on one PC at a time and changes are not transfered to other PCs.
But I don't want Synkron to use a database. That's not its purpose.
From what you say I understand that Unison does the job well, the only problem being its interface. Pity.
Anyway, as I said, I'm working on a new way to implement the delete and rename functions in a platform independent way, which would support multiple deletions without having to click each file you want to delete. But don't expect that any soon, it might prove a little trickier than it seems.
Matus
since, apart from that function, your app does look very good and very interesting
And yes, Unison copes perfectly well, once you've hand-edited the config files that use its own unique configuration language
May I ask, why you do not want to store a database of the files in each replica?
For one thing, I hate databases
No, seriously, databases just take space (nobody needs that) and clutter the synced folder with hidden files (ever seen what OS X Finder does?). Of course, an intelligent way to save a single database file could be found, but that is not flexible enough, because if you changed your mind and only wanted to sync a subfolder, your database for the parent folder would be useless.
Moreover, Synkron is meant to be used for quick syncing of two folders leaving no trace of itself behind. This is the way I want to go. It would not be good if every app did the same thing now, would it?
I pretty much hate programming them too.
In case you're interested, what unison does is store it's database as a pair of files (one for each replica) in the same folder as the config file that defined the sync job.
If you choose to sync just a subfolder, you can specify that in the job definition file, and it will just read that section of the database file, so it isn't useless, and it still saves a load of time.
Looks like they've gone into detail at Unison.
Still, I want Synkron to be different. We'll see if it turns out to have been a good idea later.
Matus
Updated to Development Test 3. should be all set.
The developer formerly known as ZGitRDun8705
Why not Team Up with Toucan to perfect one syncing application? With two people, you can cover more area. Will test your program, in time.
Although Folder 1 & 2 are assumed, it would be helpful to label them as such, to avoid confusion. Also, an option to preview and/or option to approve/deny deletions or updates (could toggle this option). ...Sometimes things get deleted on accident. Lastly, it would be helpful for the the log to show what was copied and what was updated. From what I see, all I know is that a certain file exists in 2 folders, but I don't know which updated the other (with a large batch of files, it become important to know). Otherwise, good job!