Syncthing Update
                         ----------------

Ha ha, well, I hadn't planned to write this at all. Had
something totally difference in mind.

But after six months, I honestly didn't remember that the last
thing I'd written here was praise of the glorious Syncthing
utility.

...And it just so happens that I just did an overhaul of my
Syncthing setup. So that kind of techno-synchronicity just begs
for an update.

The short TL;DR version:

* I still love it. * Still haven't found anything better. * I've
discovered a great method for accessing it.


Syncthing on FreeBSD
=================================================================
I've got a cute little fanless mini PC (Celeron) that I've got
setup as a little file server, LAN web server, etc. It was
running Slackware Linux until fairly recently, but I got on a
BSD kick and it ended up with a fresh install of FreeBSD.

Well, that mini PC _had_ been my always-on guaranteed sync
partner for my various computers. Last week, I finally got
Syncthing installed and running.

Installation was pretty straightforward (thank goodness somebody
had written a FreeBSD-specific HOWTO article!)

Note to self: I need to update my website's Syncthing article
with my FreeBSD and Slackware install notes.


Headless Operation
=================================================================
I have a monitor for the mini PC. And a spare keyboard. But I
avoid doing that if I can (I mean, it's a total pain to haul
that stuff out of the closet, clear space off of the desk, etc.)

So one of the pain points of Syncthing, for me, is that it
doesn't have a CLI interface.

Everything is done through the web interface.

And by default, the web interface needs to be accessed via
"localhost" from the machine itself. You _can_ allow external
access and turn on TLS and all that, but...ugh.

Well, I've learned some new SSH tricks after going back to
work-from-home during the COVID pandemic and most of them
involve SSH port forwarding and proxying.

After quite a bit of thinking, I _finally_ realized that I could
access *all* of my Syncthing instances from all of my various
computers from *one* browser.

The trick is to port-forward the web server via SSH. Here's an
actual example:

    $ ssh phobos -L 8001:localhost:8384

The first number is the local port, the second number is the
remote port (Syncthing's default port is 8384). I assigned 8001,
8002, 8003, etc. for all of my Syncthing instances.

Now I could open all instances in separate tabs in the same
browser. Not only did I not have to plug a monitor and keyboard
into my mini PC, I also didn't have to go traipsing around the
house (I know, lots of first world problems in this article, ha)
writing down numbers and such to coordinate all of the
instances.

It was wonderful.


Syncthing is still the king
=================================================================
I've looked at alternatives (especially ones with a CLI
interface). I still haven't found anything like Syncthing. It's
still awesome. It just works like magic.

This post I'm typing now will be available for editing on my
computer upstairs faster than I can run up there. I love it.

Hope everyone is doing okay.

Happy hacking!