[wplug] OT - synchronizing files with memory stick

[Aaron Silinskas]

I'm wondering if a file-based cvs/svn setup would work better for you.
The main issues that come to mind are:
- you'd have to run a sync command before removing the card to commit 
any new changes/files/deletions to the memory card
- there may be issues if the same file-based repository is accessed from 
linux/bsd/windows, this is purely a guess though

Your hotplug script could run an update and commit, and if you wanted to 
get fancy you could have a section handle merge/conflicts by moving one 
of the conflicting files to a separate "conflicts" area. I don't use 
memory cards, or I'd give this a shot and let you know.
   I'm more of a fan of syncing via a hosting service since $10/month 
can usually get a few gigs of net-space. GMail is another option for 
file syncing, not sure if a windows-based file explorer interface exists 
for GMail though. I have messed with mounting a GMail account to a 
directory in linux and that worked fine.

Hope some of this is useful,
Aaron


Brandon Kuczenski wrote:
> I am writing a hotplug script to synchronize some directories on my 
> local machine with directories on a flash memory stick every time it is 
> plugged in, using rsync.  The synchronization is two-directional, 
> meaning first it updates local files to match newer files on the memory 
> stick, and then it updates the stick to match newer files on the local 
> machine.  The idea is that I can use this script on multiple computers 
> and always have the same set of documents to work with.
> 
> There are a few challenges.  For one, the memory stick uses vfat (which 
> is desirable so I can use the stick on windows computers if necessary) 
> which does not support preserving timestamps when copying data -- 
> utime(2) doesn't work.  To work around this, I tell rsync to compare 
> files by checksum rather than by modification time, since files copied 
> to the stick will always look as old as the time they're copied, rather 
> than the time they were created.
> 
> Second, and more interesting from an algorithmic perspective, it becomes 
> impossible to delete files: if I remove the files on one computer, then 
> as soon as I plug the stick into another computer the old file will be 
> regenerated.  I was wondering if anyone could think of a sensible way a 
> scheme like this 'should' work that would allow useless files to be 
> removed without manually deleting them from every computer on which 
> they're present.
> 
> My scripts are currently available on the web at 
> http://301south.net/works/bkp-stick if anyone wants to have a look.  
> Works in progress, remember.
> 
> -Brandon
> 
> _______________________________________________
> wplug mailing list
> wplug at wplug.org
> http://www.wplug.org/mailman/listinfo/wplug