Synchronizing any two machines is easy when you use rsync

[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for this link. ]

"If you work with both a laptop and a desktop computer, you know you have to synchronize the machines to keep them up to date. In addition, you probably want to run the synchronization not only at your home but also from a remote site; in my case, whenever I travel with my laptop, I make sure that whatever I do on it gets backed up to my desktop computer. (Losing your laptop and thereby losing all your work isn't nice at all!) Many solutions to this problem exist: This article introduces one such tool-rsync-and mentions several related tools, all of which provide easy synchronization procedures.

"What is rsync?

"The rsync utility is a file-transfer and synchronization program widely available for Linux® and UNIX and even ported to Windows. Its key feature is a very fast algorithm that just sends file differences over the data link, thus minimizing the total data flow between machines. (If you use the File Transfer Protocol [FTP] or utilities such as rcp or scp, complete files will be sent, even if just one byte has changed.) Of course, rsync isn't limited to existing files: It can also deal with files and directories that might be present only at one end of the link. Finally, communications are optimized by compressing data, so you can use the tool even without a broadband connection."

Complete Story

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