Evaluating : Synchronization Apps (which is best, by general opinion)

I saw SyncExp, it is portable AFAIK and looks fine to me.

IMHO, the perfect synchronization program needs these features:
- portable, not just for execution, but for the paths to be synchronized as well. If I have a USB hard drive and a flash drive, I should be able to sync them on my laptop or on my desktop, regardless of what drive letters they have.
- true synchronization means keeping a "snapshot" of the synchronized directories to properly handle deletes. This snapshot should be stored with the program, not in %APPDATA% (because then it's not portable) and not in the directory to be synchronized (because that creates hidden files, and by definition changes the directory)
- some concept of "tasks", based on which drives it's able to find, then you choose which of those jobs you want to run. It should be dynamic, knowing the impact if you plug/unplug an external drive
- should work for diskettes, LAN drives, major file systems, should be able to always ignore files like Thumbs.db (doesn't have to be added for each task)
- tasks can be true sync, or one-way only (typically for backup)
- pattern matching for files/directories to include/exclude
- user can choose the amount of information he/she wants to see
- program figures out what it thinks the action should be, but prompts user for each file
- preview mode
- creates sub-directories automatically, but also deletes empty sub-directories
- "batch" mode with no user interaction for command scripts
- configuration should be stored with the program, and plain text is nice
- open source & free

I looked at a lot of them, SyncExp, Unison, Toucan, Synkron, ozSync, Allway Sync, MS SyncToy, couldn't find one that was just right, so I wrote my own. The problem for the rest of you is 1) it's in ooREXX, 2) it runs in a command prompt, so the UI is similar to the Unison non-GTK, 3) configuration is an XML file that you have to create/update manually. But it sure meets my needs

PS. I wrote a similar program to access my TrueCrypt volumes, which happen to be on removable drives, so it was just easier to write a program to access them as they're inserted. Works the same way, ooREXX command line with XML config.

Jeff

I use Toucan, because
Provides encryption
User interface is pretty straightforward
Developed by a PA.com developer
I love open-source application

One of the best things of SyncExp is its capability to run from a batch.

This is the capability which ist a knock-out criteria for my purposes.

My users don't want to click much, and if a user is forced to do many tasks to sync he will not do it, so batch capability is a criteria which is a must-have for me

And is must not have a installation.

Very fine would be, if he can check the parameters %HOMEDIR% an so, so that I have only to deploy one version and I am not forced to customize it for every user.

My (short) tests with SyncExp looked very promising.

I tested out Synkron and MS's SyncToy 2.0. I like them both pretty equally. However Synkron's lack of documentation or helpfile leaves me wondering about the exact meaning of some of the options. And it's nice to have a preview mode like SyncToy to see what changes will be made.

I have tried Toucan, DSynchronize and SyncExp. The options of the first program seems to me confusing and I have to set every option before using it. The second day I discovered that can't handle backups because I was using an 8 GB chip. Took an uncomfortable time to make a back up.

The second program seems aparently promising, since can be continuously monitoring the changes and actualizing between my hard disk and the memory stick. But its result wasn't trustable.

That's why I stayed with SyncExp. Its very trustable and fast.

Denis J Navas

Try also Total Commander.

I have yet to find a sync utility that works as well as CruzerSync. It's fast, sleek and just works! I tried Toucan which was painfully slow and often locked up or significantly slowed down my system. I look forward to a release of Toucan that works as well as CruzerSync.

You might want to check SyncBack Freeware V3.2.26.0

http://ps1.cim3.net/ps.php?theurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.2brightsparks.com%2Fd...

+1 for Synkron. I've been using for a couple of years. Easy to use and rock solid syncs.