Syncronization between folders MAC OS Lion

Question

I have an iMac at home and I use a Macbook pro for work. I also have a time capsule at home containing my main folder with my main files. I use it as a NAS besides the Time Machine backup tool. I have several personal files I need to be accessing both at home and at work. My wife, who works at home, uses sometimes the same .XLS files and .DOC files I might have used during my day at work, away from home. My question is: Is there a software, or tool that a I can use to sync my iMac and my MB Pro folders? Remembering that:

1. There might be a chance that my wife and I have changed the same files during the day, so the files would have to be merged so none of the information added by either me or my wife would be lost.

2. The software/tool that would be installed on the MB Pro would need to mount the Time Capsule volume so it could locate the main folder on it.

3. It has to be done automatically when my MB is at home ( with a schedule option ); I have tested some softwares like synctwofolders and Chronosync but none fulfilled all my needs. The first couldn't mount the Time Capsule Volume and didn't have the many schedule options. I really liked Chronosync, but it doesn't merge the files. When it detects a conflict ( for instance: my wife changed a .DOC file on the iMAC and I changed the same file on the MB it asks you to choose which version you want to keep instead of allowing you simply to merge them ).

I don't have much experience with automator or scripts but maybe you can give me a hand with that.

Answer 1

Well, there is Unison. It is piece of software that allows to sync two file system trees, also over a network. Its main strength is, in my opinion, that it is a tool that strictly does one thing, and that quite decent. Further, it is possible to plug in other solutions for such thing as merges, and it can be called as a script.

For your other points: The problem with merges is the file type. For text files there exist decent algorithms for merging. For other file formats, it can be more complicated. If you find an application that does merges for .DOC and .XLS and that can called from the command line, it is possible to call it in Unison.
To schedule Unison (or any other piece of software), you can use cronjobs or Launch Agents. So if synctwofolders satisfies all your other needs, you may want to write a launch agent for it.