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.TH "SYNCTHING-FAQ" "7" "April 08, 2016" "v0.12" "Syncthing"
.SH NAME
syncthing-faq \- Frequently Asked Questions
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.SH GENERAL
.SS What is Syncthing?
.sp
Syncthing is an application that lets you synchronize your files across multiple
devices. This means the creation, modification or deletion of files on one
machine will automatically be replicated to your other devices. We believe your
data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored. Therefore
Syncthing does not upload your data to the cloud but exchanges your data across
your machines as soon as they are online at the same time.
.SS Is it "syncthing", "Syncthing" or "SyncThing"?
.sp
It\(aqs \fBSyncthing\fP, although the command and source repository is spelled
\fBsyncthing\fP so it may be referred to in that way as well. It\(aqs definitely not
SyncThing, even though the abbreviation \fBst\fP is used in some
circumstances and file names.
.SS How does Syncthing differ from BitTorrent Sync?
.sp
The two are different and not related. Syncthing and BitTorrent Sync accomplish
some of the same things, namely syncing files between two or more computers.
.sp
BitTorrent Sync by BitTorrent, Inc is a proprietary peer\-to\-peer file
synchronization tool available for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, iOS, Windows
Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. [1] Syncthing is an open source file
synchronization tool.
.sp
Syncthing uses an open and documented protocol, and likewise the security
mechanisms in use are well defined and visible in the source code. BitTorrent
Sync uses an undocumented, closed protocol with unknown security properties.
.IP [1] 5
\fI\%http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_Sync\fP
.SH USAGE
.SS What things are synced?
.sp
The following things are \fIalways\fP synchronized:
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
File Contents
.IP \(bu 2
File Modification Times
.UNINDENT
.sp
The following may be synchronized or not, depending:
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.IP \(bu 2
File Permissions (When supported by file system. On Windows, only the
read only bit is synchronized.)
.IP \(bu 2
Symbolic Links (When supported by the OS. On Windows Vista and up,
requires administrator privileges. Links are synced as is and are not
followed.)
.UNINDENT
.sp
The following is \fInot\fP synchronized;
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
File or Directory Owners and Groups (not preserved)
.IP \(bu 2
Directory Modification Times (not preserved)
.IP \(bu 2
Hard Links (followed, not preserved)
.IP \(bu 2
Extended Attributes, Resource Forks (not preserved)
.IP \(bu 2
Windows, POSIX or NFS ACLs (not preserved)
.IP \(bu 2
Devices, FIFOs, and Other Specials (ignored)
.IP \(bu 2
Sparse file sparseness (will become unsparse)
.UNINDENT
.SS Is synchronization fast?
.sp
Syncthing segments files into pieces, called blocks, to transfer data from one
device to another. Therefore, multiple devices can share the synchronization
load, in a similar way as the torrent protocol. The more devices you have online
(and synchronized), the faster an additional device will receive the data
because small blocks will be fetched from all devices in parallel.
.sp
Syncthing handles renaming files and updating their metadata in an efficient
manner. This means that renaming a large file will not cause a retransmission of
that file. Additionally, appending data to existing large files should be
handled efficiently as well.
.sp
Temporary files are used to store partial data downloaded from other devices.
They are automatically removed whenever a file transfer has been completed or
after the configured amount of time which is set in the configuration file (24
hours by default).
.SS Should I keep my device IDs secret?
.sp
No. The IDs are not sensitive. Given a device ID it\(aqs possible to find the IP
address for that node, if global discovery is enabled on it. Knowing the device
ID doesn\(aqt help you actually establish a connection to that node or get a list
of files, etc.
.sp
For a connection to be established, both nodes need to know about the other\(aqs
device ID. It\(aqs not possible (in practice) to forge a device ID. (To forge a
device ID you need to create a TLS certificate with that specific SHA\-256 hash.
If you can do that, you can spoof any TLS certificate. The world is your
oyster!)
.sp
\fBSEE ALSO:\fP
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device\-ids
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.SS What if there is a conflict?
.sp
Syncthing does recognize conflicts. When a file has been modified on two devices
simultaneously, one of the files will be renamed to \fB<filename>.sync\-
conflict\-<date>\-<time>.<ext>\fP\&. The device which has the larger value of the
first 63 bits for his device ID will have his file marked as the conflicting
file. Note that we only create \fBsync\-conflict\fP files when the actual content
differs.
.sp
Beware that the \fB<filename>.sync\-conflict\-<date>\-<time>.<ext>\fP files are
treated as normal files after they are created, so they are propagated between
devices. We do this because the conflict is detected and resolved on one device,
creating the \fBsync\-conflict\fP file, but it\(aqs just as much of a conflict
everywhere else and we don\(aqt know which of the conflicting files is the "best"
from the user point of view. Moreover, if there\(aqs something that automatically
causes a conflict on change you\(aqll end up with \fBsync\-conflict\-...sync\-conflict
\-...\-sync\-conflict\fP files.
.SS How to configure multiple users on a single machine?
.sp
Each user should run their own Syncthing instance. Be aware that you might need
to configure ports such that they do not overlap (see the config.xml).
.SS Does Syncthing support syncing between folders on the same system?
.sp
Syncthing is not designed to sync locally and the overhead involved in doing so will waste resources. There are better programs to achieve this such as rsync or Unison.
.SS Is Syncthing my ideal backup application?
.sp
No, Syncthing is not a backup application because all changes to your files
(modification, deletion, etc) will be propagated to all your devices. You can
enable versioning, but we encourage the use of other tools to keep your data
safe from your (or our) mistakes.
.SS Why is there no iOS client?
.sp
An alternative implementation of Syncthing (using the Syncthing protocol) is being
developed at this point in time to enable iOS support. Additionally, it seems
that the next version of Go will support the darwin\-arm architecture such that
we can compile the mainstream code for the iOS platform.
.SS Why does it use so much CPU?
.INDENT 0.0
.IP 1. 3
When new or changed files are detected, or Syncthing starts for the
first time, your files are hashed using SHA\-256.
.IP 2. 3
Data that is sent over the network is first compressed and then
encrypted using AES\-128. When receiving data, it must be decrypted
and decompressed.
.UNINDENT
.sp
Hashing, compression and encryption cost CPU time. Also, using the GUI causes a
certain amount of CPU usage. Note however that once things are \fIin sync\fP CPU
usage should be negligible.
.SS How can I exclude files with brackets (\fB[]\fP) in the name?
.sp
The patterns in .stignore are glob patterns, where brackets are used to denote
character ranges. That is, the pattern \fBq[abc]x\fP will match the files \fBqax\fP,
\fBqbx\fP and \fBqcx\fP\&.
.sp
To match an actual file \fIcalled\fP \fBq[abc]x\fP the pattern needs to "escape" the
brackets, like so: \fBq\e[abc\e]x\fP\&.
.SS Why is the setup more complicated than BTSync?
.sp
Security over convenience. In Syncthing you have to setup both sides to connect
two nodes. An attacker can\(aqt do much with a stolen node ID, because you have to
add the node on the other side too. You have better control where your files are
transferred.
.SS How do I access the web GUI from another computer?
.sp
The default listening address is 127.0.0.1:8384, so you can only access the GUI
from the same machine. Change the \fBGUI listen address\fP through the web UI from
\fB127.0.0.1:8384\fP to \fB0.0.0.0:8384\fP or change the config.xml:
.INDENT 0.0
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.sp
.nf
.ft C
<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
  <address>127.0.0.1:8384</address>
.ft P
.fi
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.sp
to
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.sp
.nf
.ft C
<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
  <address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
.UNINDENT
.sp
Then the GUI is accessible from everywhere. You should most likely set a
password and enable HTTPS now. You can do this from inside the GUI.
.sp
If both your computers are Unixy (Linux, Mac, etc) You can also leave the GUI
settings at default and use an ssh port forward to access it. For example,
.INDENT 0.0
.INDENT 3.5
.sp
.nf
.ft C
$ ssh \-L 9090:127.0.0.1:8384 user@othercomputer.example.com
.ft P
.fi
.UNINDENT
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.sp
will log you into othercomputer.example.com, and present the \fIremote\fP Syncthing
GUI on \fI\%http://localhost:9090\fP on your \fIlocal\fP computer. You should not open more
than one Syncthing GUI in a single browser due to conflicting X\-CSRFTokens. Any
modification will be rejected. See \fI\%issue #720\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/issues/720\fP> to work around this limitation.
.sp
The CSRF tokens are stored using cookies. Therefore, if you get the message
\fBSyncthing seems to be experiencing a problem processing your request\fP, you
should verify the cookie settings of your browser.
.SS Why do I see Syncthing twice in task manager?
.sp
One process manages the other, to capture logs and manage restarts. This makes
it easier to handle upgrades from within Syncthing itself, and also ensures that
we get a nice log file to help us narrow down the cause for crashes and other
bugs.
.SS Where do Syncthing logs go to?
.sp
Syncthing logs to stdout by default. On Windows Syncthing by default also
creates \fBsyncthing.log\fP in Syncthing\(aqs home directory (check \fB\-help\fP to see
where that is). Command line option \fB\-logfile\fP can be used to specify a user\-defined logfile.
.SS How do I upgrade Syncthing?
.INDENT 0.0
.IP \(bu 2
If automatic upgrades is enabled (which is the default), Syncthing will
upgrade itself automatically within 24 hours of a new release.
.IP \(bu 2
The upgrade button appears in the web GUI when a new version has been released.
Pressing it will perform an upgrade.
.IP \(bu 2
To force an upgrade from the command line, run \fBsyncthing \-upgrade\fP\&.
.UNINDENT
.sp
Note that your system should have CA certificates installed which allow a secure
connection to GitHub (e.g. FreeBSD requires \fBsudo pkg install ca_root_nss\fP).
If \fBcurl\fP or \fBwget\fP works with normal HTTPS sites, then so should Syncthing.
.SS Where do I find the latest release?
.sp
We release new versions through GitHub. The latest release is always found \fI\%on
the release page\fP <\fBhttps://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest\fP>\&.
Unfortunately GitHub does not provide a single URL to automatically download the
latest version. We suggest to use the GitHub API at
\fI\%https://api.github.com/repos/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest\fP and parsing the
JSON response.
.SH AUTHOR
The Syncthing Authors
.SH COPYRIGHT
2015, The Syncthing Authors
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