[torifile]

Now that I've got 2 macs, a desktop and a powerbook, I'm looking for a nice, easy reliable solution to making sure my computers are in sync. I've used RsyncX in the past to make backups of my entire drive, but now I want something a little more nuanced. How do I get it to mirror my directories? If something is changed, it compares the modification dates or something and updates the other computer. If something is deleted, it's deleted in both places, etc.

I've downloaded the GUI for RsyncX but I want to make sure I get it right. Documentation for using it is pretty scarce, especially doing a mirroring job over the network like I'm planning on doing. Anyone have any ideas? (or ideas for a RELiABLE mirroring program?) TIA.

[El Guardo]

<- Currently using You Synchronise and would recommend it.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by El Guardo <- Currently using You Synchronise and would recommend it.

I've tried it but it seems to choke badly on my documents folder. I have no idea why... maybe it's my 3 gig VPC disk. I'm also a little confused about whether it works even if it can't sync some items. The reason I ask is because I was working on stuff on my powerbook and later in the day (after I tried the program), they were on my desktop. BUT I don't know if I copied them there myself or not... I guess I could just try it again but it takes for freakin' ever with the several thousand files/gigs of data in my documents folder.

That said, what do you use it to sync? My biggest issue is actually not my documents. It's my sent mail folder, believe it or not. I use IMAP for my mail but don't save my sent emails on the server (I often send large attachments and don't want to waste any more space than necessary). Can I sync my sent mail folder?

[El Guardo]

Synching individual emails is a problem.

I, like yourself, wanted a program that could sync all of my (Entourage) emails across two machines rather than using the IMAP approach. To the best of my knowledge there's no simple solution nor software that can perform such an act effortlessly. Hence, now I just sync the database from the iMac, which uses POP accounts and is the main machine, over to the Powerbook - which is not used for email at all.

It's not what I want but it'll do until I purchase an xServe at the beginning of next year which will then handle all email and both computers will then run IMAP setups.

[torifile]

I'm trying it again. It's so SLOW. I've tried excluding folders I know haven't changed and won't change but that doesn't seem to help. Does it get any faster?

[Kickaha]

Hmmm. I use RsyncX just spiffily... it has more features than a swiss army knife. To get it to mirror, do an update in each direction. The newest version will get copied to both.

Of course if you last backed up at time t, changed file A on machine 1 at t+10, and then changed it on machine 2 at t+20, you'll lose the changes from machine 1.