2015-05-30 11:05:37 +00:00
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.\" Man page generated from reStructuredText.
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2015-10-02 06:08:07 +00:00
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.TH "SYNCTHING-FAQ" "7" "October 01, 2015" "v0.11" "Syncthing"
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2015-05-30 11:05:37 +00:00
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.SH NAME
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syncthing-faq \- Frequently Asked Questions
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..
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.SH GENERAL
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.SS What is Syncthing?
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.sp
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Syncthing is an application that lets you synchronize your files across multiple
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devices. This means the creation, modification or deletion of files on one
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machine will automatically be replicated to your other devices. We believe your
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data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored. Therefore
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Syncthing does not upload your data to the cloud but exchanges your data across
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your machines as soon as they are online at the same time.
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.SS Is it "syncthing", "Syncthing" or "SyncThing"?
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.sp
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It\(aqs \fBSyncthing\fP, although the command and source repository is spelled
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\fBsyncthing\fP so it may be referred to in that way as well. It\(aqs definitely not
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SyncThing, even though the abbreviation \fBst\fP is used in some
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circumstances and file names.
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.SS How does Syncthing differ from BitTorrent Sync?
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.sp
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The two are different and not related. Syncthing and BitTorrent Sync accomplish
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some of the same things, namely syncing files between two or more computers.
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.sp
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BitTorrent Sync by BitTorrent, Inc is a proprietary peer\-to\-peer file
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synchronization tool available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows
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2015-06-14 11:52:00 +00:00
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Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. [1] Syncthing is an open source file
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synchronization tool.
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2015-05-30 11:05:37 +00:00
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.sp
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Syncthing uses an open and documented protocol, and likewise the security
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mechanisms in use are well defined and visible in the source code. BitTorrent
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Sync uses an undocumented, closed protocol with unknown security properties.
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2015-06-14 11:52:00 +00:00
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.IP [1] 5
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\fI\%http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_Sync\fP
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2015-05-30 11:05:37 +00:00
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.SH USAGE
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.SS What things are synced?
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.sp
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The following things are \fIalways\fP synchronized:
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.INDENT 0.0
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.IP \(bu 2
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File Contents
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.IP \(bu 2
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File Modification Times
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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The following may be synchronized or not, depending:
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.INDENT 0.0
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.IP \(bu 2
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File Permissions (When supported by file system. On Windows, only the
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read only bit is synchronized.)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Symbolic Links (When supported by the OS. On Windows Vista and up,
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requires administrator privileges. Links are synced as is and are not
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followed.)
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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The following is \fInot\fP synchronized;
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.INDENT 0.0
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.IP \(bu 2
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File or Directory Owners and Groups (not preserved)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Directory Modification Times (not preserved)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Hard Links (followed, not preserved)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Extended Attributes, Resource Forks (not preserved)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Windows, POSIX or NFS ACLs (not preserved)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Devices, FIFOs, and Other Specials (ignored)
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.IP \(bu 2
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Sparse file sparseness (will become unsparse)
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.UNINDENT
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.SS Is synchronization fast?
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.sp
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Syncthing segments files into pieces, called blocks, to transfer data from one
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device to another. Therefore, multiple devices can share the synchronization
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load, in a similar way as the torrent protocol. The more devices you have online
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(and synchronized), the faster an additional device will receive the data
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because small blocks will be fetched from all devices in parallel.
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.sp
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Syncthing handles renaming files and updating their metadata in an efficient
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manner. This means that renaming a large file will not cause a retransmission of
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that file. Additionally, appending data to existing large files should be
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handled efficiently as well.
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.sp
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Temporary files are used to store partial data downloaded from other devices.
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They are automatically removed whenever a file transfer has been completed or
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after the configured amount of time which is set in the configuration file (24
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hours by default).
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.SS Should I keep my device IDs secret?
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.sp
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No. The IDs are not sensitive. Given a device ID it\(aqs possible to find the IP
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address for that node, if global discovery is enabled on it. Knowing the device
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ID doesn\(aqt help you actually establish a connection to that node or get a list
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of files, etc.
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.sp
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For a connection to be established, both nodes need to know about the other\(aqs
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device ID. It\(aqs not possible (in practice) to forge a device ID. (To forge a
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device ID you need to create a TLS certificate with that specific SHA\-256 hash.
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If you can do that, you can spoof any TLS certificate. The world is your
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oyster!)
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.sp
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\fBSEE ALSO:\fP
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.INDENT 0.0
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.INDENT 3.5
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device\-ids
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.UNINDENT
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.UNINDENT
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.SS What if there is a conflict?
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.sp
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Syncthing does recognize conflicts. When a file has been modified on two devices
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simultaneously, one of the files will be renamed to \fB<filename>.sync\-
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conflict\-<date>\-<time>.<ext>\fP\&. The device which has the larger value of the
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first 63 bits for his device ID will have his file marked as the conflicting
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file. Note that we only create \fBsync\-conflict\fP files when the actual content
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differs.
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.sp
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Beware that the \fB<filename>.sync\-conflict\-<date>\-<time>.<ext>\fP files are
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treated as normal files after they are created, so they are propagated between
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devices. We do this because the conflict is detected and resolved on one device,
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creating the \fBsync\-conflict\fP file, but it\(aqs just as much of a conflict
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everywhere else and we don\(aqt know which of the conflicting files is the "best"
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from the user point of view. Moreover, if there\(aqs something that automatically
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causes a conflict on change you\(aqll end up with \fBsync\-conflict\-...sync\-conflict
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\-...\-sync\-conflict\fP files.
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.SS How to configure multiple users on a single machine?
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.sp
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Each user should run their own Syncthing instance. Be aware that you might need
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to configure ports such that they do not overlap (see the config.xml).
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.SS Is Syncthing my ideal backup application?
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.sp
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No, Syncthing is not a backup application because all changes to your files
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(modification, deletion, etc) will be propagated to all your devices. You can
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enable versioning, but we encourage the use of other tools to keep your data
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safe from your (or our) mistakes.
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.SS Why is there no iOS client?
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.sp
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Alternative implementation Syncthing (using the Syncthing protocol) are being
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developed at this point in time to enable iOS support. Additionally, it seems
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that the next version of Go will support the darwin\-arm architecture such that
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we can compile the mainstream code for the iOS platform.
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.SS Why does it use so much CPU?
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.INDENT 0.0
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.IP 1. 3
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When new or changed files are detected, or Syncthing starts for the
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first time, your files are hashed using SHA\-256.
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.IP 2. 3
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Data that is sent over the network is first compressed and then
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encrypted using AES\-128. When receiving data, it must be decrypted
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and decompressed.
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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Hashing, compression and encryption cost CPU time. Also, using the GUI causes a
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certain amount of CPU usage. Note however that once things are \fIin sync\fP CPU
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usage should be negligible.
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.SS How can I exclude files with brackets (\fB[]\fP) in the name?
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.sp
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The patterns in .stignore are glob patterns, where brackets are used to denote
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character ranges. That is, the pattern \fBq[abc]x\fP will match the files \fBqax\fP,
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\fBqbx\fP and \fBqcx\fP\&.
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.sp
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To match an actual file \fIcalled\fP \fBq[abc]x\fP the pattern needs to "escape" the
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brackets, like so: \fBq\e[abc\e]x\fP\&.
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.SS Why is the setup more complicated than BTSync?
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.sp
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Security over convenience. In Syncthing you have to setup both sides to connect
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two nodes. An attacker can\(aqt do much with a stolen node ID, because you have to
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add the node on the other side too. You have better control where your files are
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transferred.
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.SS How do I access the web GUI from another computer?
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.sp
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The default listening address is 127.0.0.1:8384, so you can only access the GUI
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from the same machine. Change the \fBGUI listen address\fP through the web UI from
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\fB127.0.0.1:8384\fP to \fB0.0.0.0:8384\fP or change the config.xml:
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.INDENT 0.0
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.INDENT 3.5
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.sp
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.nf
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.ft C
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<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
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<address>127.0.0.1:8384</address>
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.ft P
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.fi
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.UNINDENT
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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to
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.INDENT 0.0
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.INDENT 3.5
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.sp
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.nf
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.ft C
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<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
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<address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>
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.ft P
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.fi
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.UNINDENT
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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Then the GUI is accessible from everywhere. You should most likely set a
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password and enable HTTPS now. You can do this from inside the GUI.
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.sp
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If both your computers are Unixy (Linux, Mac, etc) You can also leave the GUI
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settings at default and use an ssh port forward to access it. For example,
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.INDENT 0.0
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.INDENT 3.5
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.sp
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.nf
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.ft C
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$ ssh \-L 9090:127.0.0.1:8384 user@othercomputer.example.com
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.ft P
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.fi
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.UNINDENT
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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will log you into othercomputer.example.com, and present the \fIremote\fP Syncthing
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GUI on \fI\%http://localhost:9090\fP on your \fIlocal\fP computer. You should not open more
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than one Syncthing GUI in a single browser due to conflicting X\-CSRFTokens. Any
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modification will be rejected. See \fI\%issue #720\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/720\fP> to work around this limitation.
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.sp
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The CSRF tokens are stored using cookies. Therefore, if you get the message
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\fBSyncthing seems to be experiencing a problem processing your request\fP, you
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should verify the cookie settings of your browser.
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.SS Why do I see Syncthing twice in task manager?
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.sp
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One process manages the other, to capture logs and manage restarts. This makes
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it easier to handle upgrades from within Syncthing itself, and also ensures that
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we get a nice log file to help us narrow down the cause for crashes and other
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bugs.
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.SS Where do Syncthing logs go to?
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.sp
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Syncthing logs to stdout by default. On Windows Syncthing by default also
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creates \fBsyncthing.log\fP in Syncthing\(aqs home directory (check \fB\-help\fP to see
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2015-09-13 09:46:17 +00:00
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where that is). Command line option \fB\-logfile\fP can be used to specify user\-defined logfile.
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2015-05-30 11:05:37 +00:00
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.SS How do I upgrade Syncthing?
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.INDENT 0.0
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.IP \(bu 2
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If automatic upgrades is enabled (which is the default), Syncthing will
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upgrade itself automatically within 24 hours of a new release.
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.IP \(bu 2
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The upgrade button appears in the web GUI when a new version has been released.
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Pressing it will perform an upgrade.
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.IP \(bu 2
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To force an upgrade from the command line, run \fBsyncthing \-upgrade\fP\&.
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.UNINDENT
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.sp
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Note that your system should have CA certificates installed which allow a secure
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connection to GitHub (e.g. FreeBSD requires \fBsudo pkg install ca_root_nss\fP).
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If \fBcurl\fP or \fBwget\fP works with normal HTTPS sites, then so should Syncthing.
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.SS Where do I find the latest release?
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.sp
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We release new versions through GitHub. The latest release is always found \fI\%on
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the release page\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest\fP>\&.
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Unfortunately GitHub does not provide a single URL to automatically download the
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latest version. We suggest to use the GitHub API at
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\fI\%https://api.github.com/repos/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest\fP and parsing the
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JSON response.
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.SH AUTHOR
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The Syncthing Authors
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.SH COPYRIGHT
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2015, The Syncthing Authors
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.\" Generated by docutils manpage writer.
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