259 lines
10 KiB
ReStructuredText
259 lines
10 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. _faq:
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FAQ
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===
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General
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-------
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What is Syncthing?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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Is it "syncthing", "Syncthing" or "SyncThing"?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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It's **Syncthing**, although the command and source repository is spelled
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``syncthing`` so it may be referred to in that way as well. It's definitely not
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:strike:`SyncThing`, even though the abbreviation ``st`` is used in some
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circumstances and file names.
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How does Syncthing differ from BitTorrent Sync?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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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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Phone, Amazon Kindle Fire and BSD. [#btsync]_ Syncthing is an open source file
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synchronization tool.
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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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.. [#btsync] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_Sync
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Usage
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-----
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What things are synced?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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The following things are *always* synchronized:
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- File Contents
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- File Modification Times
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The following may be synchronized or not, depending:
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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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- 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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The following is *not* synchronized;
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- File or Directory Owners and Groups (not preserved)
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- Directory Modification Times (not preserved)
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- Hard Links (followed, not preserved)
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- Extended Attributes, Resource Forks (not preserved)
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- Windows, POSIX or NFS ACLs (not preserved)
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- Devices, FIFOs, and Other Specials (ignored)
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- Sparse file sparseness (will become unsparse)
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Is synchronization fast?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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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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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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Should I keep my device IDs secret?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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No. The IDs are not sensitive. Given a device ID it's 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't help you actually establish a connection to that node or get a list
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of files, etc.
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For a connection to be established, both nodes need to know about the other's
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device ID. It's 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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.. seealso::
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:ref:`device-ids`
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What if there is a conflict?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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 ``<filename>.sync-
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conflict-<date>-<time>.<ext>``. 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 ``sync-conflict`` files when the actual content
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differs.
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Beware that the ``<filename>.sync-conflict-<date>-<time>.<ext>`` 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 ``sync-conflict`` file, but it's just as much of a conflict
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everywhere else and we don't know which of the conflicting files is the "best"
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from the user point of view. Moreover, if there's something that automatically
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causes a conflict on change you'll end up with ``sync-conflict-...sync-conflict
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-...-sync-conflict`` files.
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How to configure multiple users on a single machine?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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Is Syncthing my ideal backup application?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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Why is there no iOS client?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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Why does it use so much CPU?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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#. 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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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 *in sync* CPU
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usage should be negligible.
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How can I exclude files with brackets (``[]``) in the name?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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 ``q[abc]x`` will match the files ``qax``,
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``qbx`` and ``qcx``.
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To match an actual file *called* ``q[abc]x`` the pattern needs to "escape" the
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brackets, like so: ``q\[abc\]x``.
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Why is the setup more complicated than BTSync?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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't 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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How do I access the web GUI from another computer?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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 ``GUI listen address`` through the web UI from
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``127.0.0.1:8384`` to ``0.0.0.0:8384`` or change the config.xml:
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.. code-block:: xml
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<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
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<address>127.0.0.1:8384</address>
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to
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.. code-block:: xml
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<gui enabled="true" tls="false">
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<address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>
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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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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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.. code-block:: bash
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$ ssh -L 9090:127.0.0.1:8384 user@othercomputer.example.com
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will log you into othercomputer.example.com, and present the *remote* Syncthing
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GUI on http://localhost:9090 on your *local* 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 :issue:`720` to work around this limitation.
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The CSRF tokens are stored using cookies. Therefore, if you get the message
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``Syncthing seems to be experiencing a problem processing your request``, you
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should verify the cookie settings of your browser.
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Why do I see Syncthing twice in task manager?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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Where do Syncthing logs go to?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Syncthing logs to stdout by default. On Windows Syncthing by default also
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creates ``syncthing.log`` in Syncthing's home directory (check ``-help`` to see
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where that is).
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How do I upgrade Syncthing?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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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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- 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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- To force an upgrade from the command line, run ``syncthing -upgrade``.
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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 ``sudo pkg install ca_root_nss``).
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If ``curl`` or ``wget`` works with normal HTTPS sites, then so should Syncthing.
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Where do I find the latest release?
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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We release new versions through GitHub. The latest release is always found `on
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the release page <https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest>`_.
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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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https://api.github.com/repos/syncthing/syncthing/releases/latest and parsing the
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JSON response.
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