BitTorrent Sync: Painless File Syncing without the Cloud

Productivity Sauce
Cloud-based file syncing services are a dime a dozen nowadays. Most of them store copies of your data on remote servers and charge for storage space. This approach has two major drawbacks: you have to entrust your data to a third-party service, and the more storage you need, the more you have to pay. The recently released BitTorrent Sync tool offers an alternative solution that solves these problems. Instead of relying on a central server for storing files and syncing them between multiple machines, BitTorrent Sync uses a peer-to-peer protocol to keep files in sync across multiple machines. This is a brilliant solution, indeed. You don't need to run a dedicated synchronization server, there is no storage limit, and all your data stays on your machines. Better still, BitTorrent Sync encrypts all the traffic to keep your data safe.
Deploying BitTorrent on Linux is as easy as pie. Grab the appropriate version of the tool from the project's website, unpack the downloaded archive, and move the btsync executable binary to the directory of your choice. Run then BitTorrent Sync using the ./btsync command. Point then your browser to 127.0.0.1:8888/gui to access BitTorrent Sync's web interface. Here, you can add the folders you want to keep in sync. When adding a folder, you have to create a secret, a randomly generated 21-byte key. This secret is used to link folders between multiple machines.
While you can use the ./btsync command to run BitTorrent Sync with default settings, this is not always a good idea, as this leaves the web interface unprotected. The solution is to create a configuration file and point BitTorrent Sync to it. To view a sample configuration, run the ./btsync --dump-samle-config command. You can use the sample as a starting point for your own configuration file. Here is what my configuration file looks like:
{ "check_for_updates" : true, "download_limit" : 0, "upload_limit" : 0, "webui" : { "listen" : "0.0.0.0:8888", "login" : "username", "password" : "password" } }
To start BitTorrent Sync with a custom configuration file, use the ./btsync --config /path/to/btsync.conf command (replace /path/to/btsync.conf with the actual path to the configuration file).
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you've found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
PipeWire 1.0 Officially Released
PipeWire was created to take the place of the oft-troubled PulseAudio and has finally reached the 1.0 status as a major update with plenty of improvements and the usual bug fixes.
-
Rocky Linux 9.3 Available for Download
The latest version of the RHEL alternative is now available and brings back cloud and container images for ppc64le along with plenty of new features and fixes.
-
Ubuntu Budgie Shifts How to Tackle Wayland
Ubuntu Budgie has yet to make the switch to Wayland but with a change in approaches, they're finally on track to making it happen.
-
TUXEDO's New Ultraportable Linux Workstation Released
The TUXEDO Pulse 14 blends portability with power, thanks to the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU.
-
AlmaLinux Will No Longer Be "Just Another RHEL Clone"
With the release of AlmaLinux 9.3, the distribution will be built entirely from upstream sources.
-
elementary OS 8 Has a Big Surprise in Store
When elementary OS 8 finally arrives, it will not only be based on Ubuntu 24.04 but it will also default to Wayland for better performance and security.
-
OpenELA Releases Enterprise Linux Source Code
With Red Hat restricting the source for RHEL, it was only a matter of time before those who depended on that source struck out on their own.
-
StripedFly Malware Hiding in Plain Sight as a Cryptocurrency Miner
A rather deceptive piece of malware has infected 1 million Windows and Linux hosts since 2017.
-
Experimental Wayland Support Planned for Linux Mint 21.3
As with most Linux distributions, the migration to Wayland is in full force. While some distributions have already made the move, Linux Mint has been a bit slower to do so.
-
Window Maker Live 0.96.0-0 Released
If you're a fan of the Window Maker window manager, there's a new official release of the Linux distribution that champions the old-school user interface.