Live Sync with lsyncd

Productivity Sauce
rsync is an excellent and versatile backup tool, but it does have one drawback: you have to run it manually when you want to back up your data. Sure, you can use cron to create scheduled backups, but even this solution cannot provide seamless live synchronization. If this is what you want, then you need the lsyncd tool, a command-line utility which uses rsync to synchronize (or rather mirror) local directories with a remote machine in real time. To install lsyncd on your machine, download the latest .tar.gz archive from the project's Web site, unpack it, and use the terminal to switch to the resulted directory. Run then the ./configure command followed by make, and make install (the latter command requires root privileges). lsyncd is rather straightforward in use, as it features just one command and a handful of options. The lsyncd command requires only two parameters: the source and the target directory, for example:
lsyncd /path/to/source /path/to/target
This command syncs two local directories, but lsyncd can also mirror a local directory to a folder on a remote machine. For example, the following command syncs the source directory on the local machine with the target directory on a remote machine which has the 192.168.1.7 IP address, connecting to the remote server as the user "monkey":
lsyncd /path/to/source monkey@192.168.1.7:/path/to/target/
In most cases, you have to provide a password to successfully connect to a remote server, so to make the command above work, you have to use the --no-daemon option which prevents the process from running as a daemon:
lsyncd --no-daemon /path/to/source monkey@192.168.1.7:/path/to/target/
Another useful option is --exclude. As the name suggests, it allows you to specify files or directories that you don't want to sync.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusIssue 268/2023
Buy this issue as a PDF
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Find SysAdmin Jobs
News
-
LibreOffice 7.5 has Arrived and is Loaded with New Features and Improvements
The favorite office suite of the Linux community has a new release that includes some visual refreshing and new features across all modules.
-
The Next Major Release of Elementary OS Has Arrived
It's been over a year since the developers of elementary OS released version 6.1 (Jólnir) but they've finally made their latest release (Horus) available with a renewed focus on the user.
-
KDE Plasma 5.27 Beta Is Ready for Testing
The latest beta iteration of the KDE Plasma desktop is now available and includes some important additions and fixes.
-
Netrunner OS 23 Is Now Available
The latest version of this Linux distribution is now based on Debian Bullseye and is ready for installation and finally hits the KDE 5.20 branch of the desktop.
-
New Linux Distribution Built for Gamers
With a Gnome desktop that offers different layouts and a custom kernel, PikaOS is a great option for gamers of all types.
-
System76 Beefs Up Popular Pangolin Laptop
The darling of open-source-powered laptops and desktops will soon drop a new AMD Ryzen 7-powered version of their popular Pangolin laptop.
-
Nobara Project Is a Modified Version of Fedora with User-Friendly Fixes
If you're looking for a version of Fedora that includes third-party and proprietary packages, look no further than the Nobara Project.
-
Gnome 44 Now Has a Release Date
Gnome 44 will be officially released on March 22, 2023.
-
Nitrux 2.6 Available with Kernel 6.1 and a Major Change
The developers of Nitrux have officially released version 2.6 of their Linux distribution with plenty of new features to excite users.
-
Vanilla OS Initial Release Is Now Available
A stock GNOME experience with on-demand immutability finally sees its first production release.
Live Sync with lsyncd
be it sysadmins or home users. We use tar as a basis for our own backup script,
but I recognize the power of rsync as a basis.
Also, there's so many tools to choose from, and I guess rsync tools can mix,
e.g. you can have lsyncd running, while also having a tool like rsyncBackup or
Rdiff-backup ?
Don't forget to make backups for databases (MySQL for example) with their tools, though,
to keep databases consistent!
Anyway, I like tools based on proven and mature simple Un*x tools like tar and rsync,
cause you'll also have all other Un*x tools to mix with them, e.g. being able to keep a cron
job separate from your backup program itself keeps things manageable.
Mike