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I have a moderately-sized stash (~100GB) of music and photos (and other documents). I'd like to be able to keep (at least) two copies of the files in sync, without requiring that all the PCs be connected at the same time. Of course there are services like Dropbox, but they only sync a few GB at a time. I would like to keep the most recent (say) 5GB of new files in the cloud (and deletions, moves and renames too of course), and each time one of my PCs was connected, it would synchronise its changes with the cloud.

I realise this sounds a bit like Subversion, but I don't need version control - just synchronisation. It should also be cross-platform, as one system runs Windows 7 and one Ubuntu. Can it be done with rsync?

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  • If the remote service offers rsync, you certainly can use rsync for this, but rsync doesn't have any concept of "the most recent X GB of changes". You can, however, make it sync the entire directory tree to a remote location transferring only the differences (at worst, the set of files that are different). Might that do what you want?
    – user
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 7:21
  • Maybe. But I'm assuming the remote location doesn't have all the files, so it won't be able to know what the differences are.
    – benshepherd
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 8:17

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check out http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html

it does what you want looks like

Sorry, you guys are right, links can change. Here is a snippet from Lifehacker on the capabilities

If you've ever wanted a security-focused, Dropbox-like file and folder syncing option, BitTorrent decided to answer your wishes with BitTorrent Sync. Previously in private alpha, BitTorrent Sync is now available to the public for Windows, OS X, and Linux appliances.P

Although BitTorrent Sync syncs your folders and files much like you'd expect from a service like Dropbox, you set it up a little differently. When you start for the first time, you choose where you want a folder to be and then BitTorrent Sync gives you a secret. When you install BitTorrent Sync on another computer, you can provide that secret and link the folders together. They'll synchronize with each other securely, peer-to peer. That means nothing goes to the cloud, but rather each computer syncs data with the other directly.P

If you want to sync a different folder, regardless of its location, you can just add it to BitTorrent Sync and it'll work just like the folder you set up initially. The service is very easy to use, despite its security focus (which often involves sacrificing convenience), and doesn't cost you anything to use. If you're looking for a simple way to sync any folder and its contents on your computer for free—whether you care about security or not—give BitTorrent Sync a try.

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  • I can't follow that link at the moment (blocked by work), but BitTorrent will only work if both computers are connected to the internet, which will not necessarily be the case.
    – benshepherd
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 8:22
  • this will work if you are on the same network, if no internet is available then maybe a vpn might be a solution?
    – nGX
    Commented Sep 17, 2013 at 23:33

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