123
Synchi - Two-way file sync
(jakobkreft.github.io)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2026
123 points (100.0% liked)
Linux
64001 readers
632 users here now
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
Genuine question: How's this different to
rsync?I have
rsyncinstalled locally, but not remotely and I'm able to sync changes, so how does this differ?Edit: ok, I read the article a bit further and found the rsync comparison
Great question! Let me sum it up here for others:
rsync is one-way only and has no memory between runs, every execution starts from scratch. Synchi is two-way, stateful (knows what changed since last sync), and content-aware (uses hashes, so no false positives from timestamp changes). It also handles conflicts explicitly instead of silently overwriting.
That said, rsync is still the better tool for backups and one-way mirroring. Synchi is for when you need true bidirectional sync.
Here is also a comparison with unison and syncthing: https://jakobkreft.github.io/synchi/why.html
Maybe I missed it, but you don't seem to mention anywhere sub-file sync (binary diffing) support (or presumably the lack of it), which is very important for fast syncing when files actually change!
You are correct! no sub-file sync / binary diffing at the moment. It was my deliberate choice to keep complexity down. In practice, text files where diffing helps are tiny and transfer instantly anyway, and large files like images and videos almost never change partially. The main case where it would matter is something like large database files or VM images. That said, it's not off the table for the future!