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<title>The Internet Vagabond :: Brief Exploration of Syncthing</title>
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<a href="/">
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<div>
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<span class="first">T</span>he
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<span class="first">I</span>nternet
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<span class="first">V</span>agabond
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<article>
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<h1 id="a-brief-exploration-of-syncthing">A Brief Exploration of Syncthing</h1>
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<p>Syncthing is an incredible tool. Many days past I stumbled upon it as an
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alternative to Dropbox. It’s different from Dropbox, or similar services,
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though, in a number of ways. For one, Syncthing is a peer-to-peer
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synchronization program, whereas Dropbox is a centralized file storage and
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synchronization service. When you setup and use Syncthing, the files only ever
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live on whichever peers you setup. This is different from Dropbox, or similar
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services, where files live on their servers. There’s more to it, and for all the
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details, the <a href="https://syncthing.net/">Syncthing</a> website provides plentiful
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information.</p>
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<p>In this post, I want to discuss how to setup Syncthing, and some use-cases for
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it. In future posts, I want to explore setting up custom relay servers, and
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perhaps some more use-cases as well.</p>
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<h2 id="setup">Setup</h2>
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<p>Install the appropriate package for your operating system. Syncthing is
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available on just about every OS out there. Syncthing already has <a href="https://docs.syncthing.net/intro/getting-started.html">thorough
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installation
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documentation</a>, so I
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won’t re-write what’s already available. I will discuss how I setup my Syncthing
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instead.</p>
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<p>On my desktop, running Arch Linux, I installed the necessary package:</p>
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<div class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code>$ sudo pacman -S syncthing
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</code></pre></div></div>
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<p>When I was running Gnome, I also installed <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">syncthing-gtk</code> to provide a tray
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icon. After my switch to KDE Plasma, the Syncthing application displays a tray
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icon by default, and so I removed the now unnecessary package. When I had a
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Windows partition, I also installed <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">SyncTrazor</code> for a tray icon.</p>
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<p>The second device of choice is my Android phone, where I installed the Syncthing
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app (helpfully available on F-Droid too!).</p>
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<p>With packages installed on both devices, I then followed the guide. All things
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considered, it was a very easy process.</p>
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<h2 id="use-case-music">Use-Case: Music</h2>
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<p>One of the most immediate uses I had for Syncthing was music. I finally decided
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to drop all streaming services, and start buying my music. As a result, I
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suddenly had a growing music library available on my desktop. This was the
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primary reason I decided to try Syncthing: to get music files from my desktop
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onto my phone. After setup, syncing was a breeze. The new problem became space:
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I have quite a bit of music now, and I don’t necessarily want all of it on my
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phone. Conveniently, Syncthing allows for creating a <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">.stignore</code> file, which
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tells Syncthing which files to exclude from synchronizing. The
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<a href="https://docs.syncthing.net/users/ignoring.html">documentation</a> provides a great
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breakdown of available options. One challenge is that the <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">.stignore</code> file is
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<strong>not</strong> synchronized. To get around this, I setup my ignore file to include a
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second file, which <em>does</em> get synchronized. That file lists every directory and
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subdirectory in my music folder, and then ends with <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">**/*</code>. For any directory or
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subdirectory (generally artist and album, respectively) that I want to sync, I
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place a <code class="language-plaintext highlighter-rouge">!</code> before it. The eventual plan is to automatically update the file
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whenever new music is added to the directory. When I get around to that, I’ll
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almost certainly post about it.</p>
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<h2 id="use-case-notes--to-do">Use-Case: Notes / To-Do</h2>
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<p>Not long after music, I started looking around for a good to-do / note-taking
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app for my phone. I wanted an application that was simple, without bells and
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whistles. I tried a few before settling on
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<a href="https://gsantner.net/project/markor.html">Markor</a>. This app is wonderful.
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Everything I want, with almost nothing I don’t. It’s open-source, actively
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developed, available on F-Droid; it works on local files, and <em>that’s it</em>. I
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started using it to track my gym workouts, make grocery lists, or track
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suggestions for media. As long as I was on wi-fi, those files were waiting for
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me on my desktop. Very convenient, simple, and effective.</p>
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<h2 id="use-case-pictures">Use-Case: Pictures</h2>
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<p>Another straight-forward use case: synchronizing pictures. As I continue to
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“de-Google” my life, I needed a replacement for Google Photos. I have a Flickr,
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but I’m not certain that I’ll hang onto it. For now, I just need a simple way to
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synchronize pictures between my phone and my desktop, and Syncthing provides
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that.</p>
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<h1 id="100-days">100 Days</h1>
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<p>I’m writing this post as part of
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<a href="https://100daystooffload.com">#100DaysToOffload</a>, an initiative to inspire
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writing habits. Perhaps you could do the same.</p>
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<h1 id="sources">Sources</h1>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://syncthing.net/">Syncthing</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://github.com/canton7/SyncTrayzor">SyncTrayzor</a></li>
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<li><a href="https://gsantner.net/project/markor.html">Markor</a></li>
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</ul>
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<div class="author_info">
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Bill Niblock
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2020-07-19
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<br />
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