[HN Gopher] FreeFileSync: Open-Source File Synchronization and B...
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FreeFileSync: Open-Source File Synchronization and Backup
Author : rcoilliot
Score : 137 points
Date : 2021-12-23 13:19 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (freefilesync.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (freefilesync.org)
| NelsonMinar wrote:
| I've used FreeFileSync to keep two Windows machines in sync for
| years. It works incredibly well. It's very fast too; copying lots
| of files in Windows is often bafflingly slow. Whatever this tool
| does is not.
|
| I finally quit using it because I got Starlink at my house and
| now have enough bandwidth to just let Syncthing keep the machines
| in sync. But if you need to sync through a hard drive you carry
| around FreeFileSync is great.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| > _It 's very fast too_
|
| This is due to parallel (threaded) copying, which is a paid-for
| feature in recent versions.
|
| If you need fast copying, "robocopy" comes bundled with Windows
| and it has /mt option that allows spawning multiple copying
| threads. This is as fast as gets, beating even this tool with
| ease.
| willis936 wrote:
| Robocopy uses /mt 8 by default.
| huhtenberg wrote:
| That's, if /mt is specified without a thread count, the
| count will default to 8. Without the switch it will run
| single-threaded.
| ww520 wrote:
| Windows used to have SyncToy in the PowerTools package. Guess
| this is better for multi platforms.
| rspoerri wrote:
| i wonder why does this tool needs access to the internet?
| account-5 wrote:
| This used to be my go-to sync software. I used it via
| portableapps on Windows. I stopped using it in favor of free
| portable syncing software when they started charging for the
| portable version and not allowing it to run from the PA launcher.
| wingmanjd wrote:
| What did you switch to?
|
| In my experience, the older PortableApp versions of
| FreeFileSync continue to work just fine.
| account-5 wrote:
| I moved to Toucan for Windows.
|
| For Linux I bit the bullet and learned rsync and a little
| bash programming. I was putting this off for a while but
| happy with my really simple script.
| dade_ wrote:
| I use this for managing offline backups and syncing my music
| library to my phone and a USB stick for my car stereo. Great
| tool, stable and dependable.
| wiseleo wrote:
| I love this software. It solves a lot of problems with legacy
| environments where I tend to operate. :)
| spiritplumber wrote:
| would people be upset if there was an android version?
| teleforce wrote:
| Just wondering what's the sync algorithm being used by FFS, is it
| similar to vanilla rsync algorithm, Microsoft's RDC or Syncpal
| [1],[2],[3]?
|
| [1]https://www.andrew.cmu.edu/course/15-749/READINGS/required/c..
| .
|
| [2]https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-
| content/uploads/...
|
| [3]https://hal.inria.fr/IFIP-LNCS-11534/hal-02319573
| butz wrote:
| Great software, but building it from source is complicated, as
| libraries need manual patching. And on Linux from version 11.6
| they introduced custom binary installer, that's useful for
| beginners, but for power users and flatpak packagers it only
| brought problems.
| rcoilliot wrote:
| How come this awesome software not more discussed here ? Anyone
| here use it ? It literraly been a life changer for me in my
| backup strategy and I can't recommend it enough to everyone.
| hatware wrote:
| It works well for some use cases, I used it when I just had a
| windows desktop with 4TB acting as NAS, now I have a more
| mature backup strategy because I have nearly 200TB of disks.
| howdydoo wrote:
| I vaguely remember skipping over it because it included malware
| in the installer. But it looks like that was fixed a few years
| ago.
|
| Sources so people know I'm not crazy:
|
| https://freefilesync.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5068
|
| https://www.ghacks.net/2018/05/03/freefilesync-10-0/
| tonyedgecombe wrote:
| Once somebody has done something like that I can't trust them
| again.
| lunfard000 wrote:
| I dont see the benefits tbh, as much as people here dislike
| them, a web interface would be better than its own desktop
| application in order to manage your homelab backups from
| different computers.
|
| Also, the "Donation" edition is smelly, just be honest and call
| it "Pro" version to give consumer rights to the buyer.
| sandreas wrote:
| I think because there are even more awesome (opinionated) tools
| out there... mostly command line.
|
| Like - rsync
|
| - rclone
|
| - restic
|
| - rdedup
|
| - etc.
| cosmojg wrote:
| How does this compare to Syncthing or rsync?
| sidpatil wrote:
| Overall, FreeFileSync is more like Unison [1] than like
| Syncthing or rsync. Though, I haven't really used rsync, so I
| can't make a detailed comparison.
|
| Syncthing is automated/daemon, so the syncing happens in the
| background automatically. FreeFileSync's default behavior
| requires manual start/stop of sync jobs, though it does have an
| optional real-time sync feature.
|
| The main advantage of Syncthing is that it supports multiple
| hosts/locations for the same backup, and that syncing is P2P
| between the hosts.
|
| [1] https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
| brnt wrote:
| Freefilesync gives you a (good!) gui to observe and then
| resolve differences between file trees. This is useful if the
| keep-latest strategy all of those 'blind' sync tools doesn't
| (always) work for your use case. Freefilesync has let me catch
| accidental deletes countless times for instance. I use
| Syncthing and rclone as well, but for some use cases I need
| 'eyes'.
| ZoomZoomZoom wrote:
| First of all, both of these are different beasts. Syncthing
| requires building a network layer of trusted machines to share
| files between.
|
| FFS is closer to Rsync and the main feature is fast and
| detailed file tree inspection and conflict resolution with the
| help of GUI.
| MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
| woldenron wrote:
| Where's the source then?
|
| And it displays ads?
| sidpatil wrote:
| The source is available in a zip file on the download page. I
| didn't see any links to a VCS repo (but I also didn't look very
| carefully.)
| eps wrote:
| There is apparently also a "Donation Edition" -
| Everyone who donates is eligible to download a special
| version of FreeFileSync without any advertisements,
| including a few of bonus features.
|
| It is built from a different source, so it's neither free or open
| source. Not that anything wrong with it, but it should probably
| not be distributed under the same name -
| https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#donation-edition
| chaosite wrote:
| This project is kinda wonky from a free/open-source
| perspective. It's ostensibly licensed under GPL-3 (i.e.,
| there's a source zip which has a License.txt that's GPL-3), but
| it otherwise acts like freeware with a single developer.
|
| It has a history of bundling file-droppers/malware; there's a
| donation edition with a different feature set, with some extra
| features (including removal of arbitrary limitations on the
| regular versions); the installers are binary blobs, and there's
| no attempt (and passive hostility) towards integration with
| distros and package managers; source control isn't provided,
| and there's basically no attempt to create a dev community.
|
| The binary installers may or may not include things that are
| not in the provided source code, like installer and ad systems.
| That's not really cool.
| nerdponx wrote:
| That's a hard pass from me. I will keep using Seafile and
| supporting FOSS by paying for hosting.
| ZoomZoomZoom wrote:
| The killer feature of this over rsync or rclone (which I love and
| use almost daily) is pre-run inspection and conflict resolution
| for each individual file. You know when you need it, and when you
| do, FreeFileSync shines.
|
| For those mentioning WSL enabling using rsync on Windows: have
| been using it with Cygwin for years, zero issues. So, WSL wasn't
| a hard requirement.
| orev wrote:
| I can also recommend Cygwin, and I really don't understand why
| so many people seem to have either completely overlooked it, or
| outright dislike it. It's so much better than having to keep a
| full blown WSL "VM"/container just to get access to basic
| tools.
| smarx007 wrote:
| I have a happy setup of Cygwin + Bash script invoking find/mv
| and a Windows Scheduler cron job to run it every 5 minutes.
| But to be honest, FreeFileSync is my first choice, but it was
| not viable for my use-case (moving files in Dropbox without
| downloading them, FFS and rsync do copy/delete).
| Ajedi32 wrote:
| It's been a long time since I've used it, but I seem to
| recall Cygwin having a lot of minor but annoying "gotchas"
| with things like package management, file paths, etc. that
| you don't have to deal with in a more complete environment
| like WSL.
|
| The fact that software needs to be specifically compiled for
| Cygwin is a big enough hassle on its own that I'd rather just
| use a "real" Linux environment and not have to deal with it.
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| I tried to use Cygwin a handful of times, but having to
| stop, close, and re-run the installer every time I forgot
| some package was overbearing. WSL was much easier to get
| running (it's a part of Windows!), and since it's a real
| ubuntu/debian/etc. installation, it behaves like one, too.
| Far and away much better UX with WSL.
| ReactiveJelly wrote:
| I've only had to stop the terminal if I'm updating
| cygwin.dll, not if I'm just installing more packages
| canistel wrote:
| You can use the --dry-run option in rsync, with which you can
| do a pre-run inspection.
| DerWOK wrote:
| Unfortunately no brew install skipt for this gem? Anybody knows
| why?
| chaxor wrote:
| What are the different use cases for this versus meld?
| smarx007 wrote:
| Meld the diff tool?! https://meldmerge.org/ Does Meld allow to
| set automated file syncs?
| brnt wrote:
| This tool is in my essentials toolbox. I use it for everything,
| backups, comparing snapshots, comparing git branches, external
| drives, you name it.
|
| Inspecting file tree differences is key to all of those actions,
| as far as I am concerned, and FreeFileSync does it best, and is
| multiplatform to boot.
| howdydoo wrote:
| I've always used Beyond Compare to compare file trees (best $60
| I ever spent!) Is there anything FreeFileSync does that Beyond
| Compare is missing?
| brnt wrote:
| Run natively on Linux.
|
| But yes, BC is great too, and it was what I was using before.
| unmole wrote:
| BC runs natively on Linux. Or am I missing your point?
| brnt wrote:
| It didnt used to, although it worked in Wine. Shows you
| how long ago I switched.
| rcoilliot wrote:
| It's incredible how it turns all those nightmarish actions into
| zen and pure satisfaction !
| orev wrote:
| For anyone mentioning rsync, I would assert that rsync is very
| poorly named, and has polluted the 'sync' namespace with a
| meaning outside of what most people understand synchronization to
| be.
|
| Outside of rsync, the 'sync' term almost invariably refers to bi-
| directional synchronization, with data going between both
| systems, so when the process is complete, both sides match. Rsync
| does not do this--it sends files one way only, which is what most
| people would refer to as a 'mirror'.
|
| Every other "sync" tool does things bidirectionally, so rsync
| really doesn't belong in a comparison with other sync tools.
|
| P.S. I'm aware that people who have never known a world without
| rsync may not realize that there's a very real dividing line
| here, and this concept is very much one of the first the needs to
| be explained to people when first learning rsync.
| pmontra wrote:
| rsync is from 1996. I remember I told me something like "it's
| like rcp but only for what's changed". I agree that with
| hindsight mirror could be a better name and mirrordir [1] would
| have had to pick a different name in 1998 [2]
|
| [1] https://linux.die.net/man/1/mirrordir
|
| [2]
| http://www.landley.net/kdocs/als1999/Conference/PSheer2/Mirr...
| theandrewbailey wrote:
| I used a tool similar to this for many years. Then WSL happened,
| and I started using rsync in there instead to backup and restore
| stuff on Windows, just like I do on Linux.
| Datagenerator wrote:
| Have you seen rclone?
| nisa wrote:
| see also: https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/
| sidpatil wrote:
| I've essentially stopped using Unison in favor of FreeFileSync.
| Its GUI is much more featureful and informative, not to mention
| easier to use.
|
| For example, I get live stats (bandwidth, files/second, etc. on
| a chart) during sync operations when using FreeFileSync. Unison
| only shows bandwidth, and it's usually inaccurate.
|
| Though, I haven't used FreeFileSync with large backups yet, so
| I don't yet know how it compares to Unison in terms of
| performance.
| JohnTHaller wrote:
| One issue we've had with FreeFileSync is that the 'portable'
| functionality of it is a paid-only feature. As are removing ads.
| We'd rebuild it ourselves and rename it if needed, but the source
| code requires patched libraries and has no/incomplete build
| instructions. Neither I nor anyone else I know was able to get it
| to build, at least over the many years I played with it. That's
| why the version we make available at PortableApps.com is still
| version 6.2, that last version that didn't purposely break
| portability.
| rkagerer wrote:
| Thoughts vs Beyond Compare (at least for Windows)?
|
| UI looks noisier to me.
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