Favorite way of syncing?

Favorite way of syncing?

[Tobias Frischholz]

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Hey there!

I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and everything.
I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an automated system that synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.

So far, I’ve also read that people use TRAMP in conjunction with an SSH Server (and work exclusively on this SSH server).
I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for me).
And now I’m starting the get confused.

Any helpful thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
Tobias Frischholz

PGP PUBLIC KEY: http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?search=0xCD463AC1&op=index


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Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Alan Schmitt]

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Hello,

I’m currently working on a single machine, but I may have a couple
suggestions.

On 2015-09-11 15:59, Tobias Frischholz <tobias@friolz.com> writes:

> Hey there!
>
> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and
> everything.
> I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an automated system that
> synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.

Have you looked at the “-repeat” option of unison? When I was using
several machines, I was using simple scripts to run when I arrived and
when I left, making sure I was up to date.

> So far, I’ve also read that people use TRAMP in conjunction with an SSH Server
> (and work exclusively on this SSH server).
> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for me).
> And now I’m starting the get confused.
>
> Any helpful thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

The problem with git is that you need to make sure you pull before
starting to make changes. This can also be solved by a script.

Please let us know when you have a working workflow.

Best,

Alan

-- 
OpenPGP Key ID : 040D0A3B4ED2E5C7
Last week athmospheric CO₂ average (Updated September 9, 2015, Mauna Loa Obs.):
377.86 ppm

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Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Jorge A. Alfaro-Murillo]

Tobias Frischholz writes:

> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org 
> files and everything. 
[...] 
> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for 
> me).  And now I’m starting the get confused.

magit is just the emacs mode for git, if you don't have it and use 
git you should really install it. But it does not sync anything 
you still have to M-x magit <enter> F F and M-x magit <enter> P P, 
for pull and push.

I have several computers and synchronize my org files with git. I 
think it is the best option because I do not have to worry about 
the sync not working (for example when I do not have a connection) 
and conflicts in the files.

-- 
Jorge.

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Paul Rudin]

Tobias Frischholz <tobias-CxV/IpQhd9jQT0dZR+AlfA@public.gmane.org> writes:

> Hey there!
>
> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and
> everything.
> I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an automated system that
> synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.
>
> So far, I’ve also read that people use TRAMP in conjunction with an SSH Server
> (and work exclusively on this SSH server).
> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for me).
> And now I’m starting the get confused.
>
> Any helpful thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
>

Dropbox (or similar) client on both machines?

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

jorge.alfaro-murillo@yale.edu (Jorge A. Alfaro-Murillo) writes:

> Tobias Frischholz writes:
>
>> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files
>> and everything. 
> [...] 
>> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for me).
>> And now I’m starting the get confused.
>
> magit is just the emacs mode for git, if you don't have it and use git
> you should really install it. But it does not sync anything you still
> have to M-x magit <enter> F F and M-x magit <enter> P P, for pull and
> push.
>
> I have several computers and synchronize my org files with git. I
> think it is the best option because I do not have to worry about the
> sync not working (for example when I do not have a connection) and
> conflicts in the files.

I do this, too. I don't think Magit helps much, in fact I'd be better
off writing functions for `emacs-startup-hook' and `kill-emacs-hook'
that do my pushes and pulls for me.

But for now, I just try to remember to commit and push before I leave a
machine.

This way, you also really learn to appreciate using "git fetch" and "git
status", rather than doing a blind "git pull".

Eric

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday, 11 Sep 2015 at 15:59, Tobias Frischholz wrote:
> Hey there!
>
> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files
> and everything.  I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an
> automated system that synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.

I use unison and it works like a charm, allowing me to keep 4+ systems
in complete sync.

The easiest alternative I can think of is Dropbox or equivalent, if you
want "automation".
-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 25.0.50.2, Org release_8.3.1-234-g8c85c9

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Tory S. Anderson]

At the moment I'm using a self-hosted OwnCloud to do syncing; it's 
super easy (takes care of itself), but sometimes conflicts are a 
problem (particularly when I forget to save my buffers before 
leaving work); if you notice it, though, it provides a conflict 
version (and has automatic versioning a la Dropbox). 

Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:

> jorge.alfaro-murillo@yale.edu (Jorge A. Alfaro-Murillo) writes:
>
>> Tobias Frischholz writes:
>>
>>> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org 
>>> files
>>> and everything. 
>> [...] 
>>> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for 
>>> me).
>>> And now I’m starting the get confused.
>>
>> magit is just the emacs mode for git, if you don't have it and 
>> use git
>> you should really install it. But it does not sync anything you 
>> still
>> have to M-x magit <enter> F F and M-x magit <enter> P P, for 
>> pull and
>> push.
>>
>> I have several computers and synchronize my org files with 
>> git. I
>> think it is the best option because I do not have to worry 
>> about the
>> sync not working (for example when I do not have a connection) 
>> and
>> conflicts in the files.
>
> I do this, too. I don't think Magit helps much, in fact I'd be 
> better
> off writing functions for `emacs-startup-hook' and 
> `kill-emacs-hook'
> that do my pushes and pulls for me.
>
> But for now, I just try to remember to commit and push before I 
> leave a
> machine.
>
> This way, you also really learn to appreciate using "git fetch" 
> and "git
> status", rather than doing a blind "git pull".
>
> Eric
>
>
>

-- 
Tory S. Anderson
Computational Cognitive Narratologist
http://toryanderson.com

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Joon Ro]

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I use Unison for settings like dotfiles, since with unison you don't have to put files into a specific folder or use symlinks. I miss versioning of Dropbox, but it is okay since settings do not change that frequently. I just back up everything every day.
I use AeroFS for sensitive data and Dropbox for other things.
Best,Joon

> From: torys.anderson@gmail.com
> To: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org
> Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2015 09:25:19 -0600
> Subject: Re: [O] Favorite way of syncing?
> 
> At the moment I'm using a self-hosted OwnCloud to do syncing; it's 
> super easy (takes care of itself), but sometimes conflicts are a 
> problem (particularly when I forget to save my buffers before 
> leaving work); if you notice it, though, it provides a conflict 
> version (and has automatic versioning a la Dropbox). 
> 
> Eric Abrahamsen <eric@ericabrahamsen.net> writes:
> 
> > jorge.alfaro-murillo@yale.edu (Jorge A. Alfaro-Murillo) writes:
> >
> >> Tobias Frischholz writes:
> >>
> >>> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org 
> >>> files
> >>> and everything. 
> >> [...] 
> >>> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for 
> >>> me).
> >>> And now I’m starting the get confused.
> >>
> >> magit is just the emacs mode for git, if you don't have it and 
> >> use git
> >> you should really install it. But it does not sync anything you 
> >> still
> >> have to M-x magit <enter> F F and M-x magit <enter> P P, for 
> >> pull and
> >> push.
> >>
> >> I have several computers and synchronize my org files with 
> >> git. I
> >> think it is the best option because I do not have to worry 
> >> about the
> >> sync not working (for example when I do not have a connection) 
> >> and
> >> conflicts in the files.
> >
> > I do this, too. I don't think Magit helps much, in fact I'd be 
> > better
> > off writing functions for `emacs-startup-hook' and 
> > `kill-emacs-hook'
> > that do my pushes and pulls for me.
> >
> > But for now, I just try to remember to commit and push before I 
> > leave a
> > machine.
> >
> > This way, you also really learn to appreciate using "git fetch" 
> > and "git
> > status", rather than doing a blind "git pull".
> >
> > Eric
> >
> >
> >
> 
> -- 
> Tory S. Anderson
> Computational Cognitive Narratologist
> http://toryanderson.com
> 
 		 	   		  

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Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Ramon Diaz-Uriarte]

On Fri, 11-09-2015, at 15:59, Tobias Frischholz <tobias@friolz.com> wrote:
> Hey there!
>
> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and
> everything.  I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an automated
> system that synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.
>

I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) which, admittedly, does not
require a server nor uses SSH :-). I keep four computers in sync this way,
and also use it to send/receive the org files (with MobileOrg) to/from
android devices. It is as automatic as I can think of. Once set up, I have
to do nothing and it just works.


If you are familiar with BTsync you can think of syncthing as somewhat
similar (but much better, and free software).


It is possible to enable a rudimentary form of version control with
syncthing itself, but I don't (the files change too often). Instead, one of
the computers (which should always be on) is also running Seafile
(https://www.seafile.com/en/home/), which actually I think uses git as a
backend, so I can recover disasters.


Syncthing provides conflict detection. It is not git, but it is enough for
me with org files (I rarely edit in two or machines at the same time, and
the last machine where I make a change is often connected before I work on
another so I do not often have a chance for conflict). 


[In the past, I used dropbox ---instead of syncthing, though syncthing is
not exactly a one-to-one replacement---, and nightly cron jobs that
committed the org directory in one of the machines to a bzr repo ---instead
of the seafile part--- for disaster recovery.]


> So far, I’ve also read that people use TRAMP in conjunction with an SSH Server (and work exclusively on this SSH server).
> I’ve also read about org-sync and magit (git is an option for me).
> And now I’m starting the get confused.
>

I use magit and git for version control but I do not find formal version
control very useful with my org files. I like to be able to finish
something, stop the timer on the laptop, and a second later put it to
hibernate and leave my house/office, without the need for a commit and
push, and knowing that all of that has been synced to all the other
machines that are on and connected. I know, though, that other people feel
differently.


Best,


R.






> Any helpful thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
>
> Best regards,
> Tobias Frischholz
>
> PGP PUBLIC KEY: http://pgp.mit.edu/pks/lookup?search=0xCD463AC1&op=index

-- 
Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
Department of Biochemistry, Lab B-25
Facultad de Medicina
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 
Arzobispo Morcillo, 4
28029 Madrid
Spain

Phone: +34-91-497-2412

Email: rdiaz02@gmail.com
       ramon.diaz@iib.uam.es

http://ligarto.org/rdiaz

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric S Fraga]

On Friday, 11 Sep 2015 at 18:42, Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote:

[...]

> I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) which, admittedly, does not
> require a server nor uses SSH :-). I keep four computers in sync this way,
> and also use it to send/receive the org files (with MobileOrg) to/from

Thanks for the heads up on this.  The only thing I use Dropbox for is
MobileOrg and I would love to avoid using a proprietary *and* closed
system, especially as some of the content is sensitive.  Off to read the
web site...  :-)

-- 
: Eric S Fraga (0xFFFCF67D), Emacs 25.0.50.2, Org release_8.3.1-234-g8c85c9

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Myles English]

Hi Tobias,

Tobias Frischholz writes:

> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and everything.

For org files I use git combined with myrepos and it has been working
very well for me for several years.  For dotfiles I recently discovered
vcsh, also synced via myrepos.  It too is working nicely so far.

When I leave one computer I type 'mr update' and everything syncs to a
server running gitolite that manages bare repos.  When I get to another
computer I type 'mr update' to sync it again.

It is quite complicated but does the job.

https://myrepos.branchable.com
https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
http://gitolite.com/gitolite/index.html

Myles

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Kyle Meyer]

Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> writes:

>> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files
>> and everything.
>
> For org files I use git combined with myrepos and it has been working
> very well for me for several years.  For dotfiles I recently discovered
> vcsh, also synced via myrepos.  It too is working nicely so far.
>
> When I leave one computer I type 'mr update' and everything syncs to a
> server running gitolite that manages bare repos.  When I get to another
> computer I type 'mr update' to sync it again.

I'd also recommend trying myrepos and wanted to add that you can avoid
using a bare repo by syncing with git annex [1].  This works regardless
of whether you decide to check your changes into git annex (which tracks
versions of a file and where it exists but not the actual content) or
track the content as usual with git.  I don't do this for my Org files
(like Myles, I use plain git and a central bare repo), but I use git
annex for other files whose content I don't want to track with git.

[1] Also by Joey Hess, the author of myrepos.
    https://git-annex.branchable.com/

--
Kyle

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

On 09/11/15 20:59 PM, Tobias Frischholz wrote:
>> I do this, too. I don't think Magit helps much, in fact I'd be better
>> off writing functions for `emacs-startup-hook' and `kill-emacs-hook'
>> that do my pushes and pulls for me.
>
> Those hooks sound very interesting to mean. Has anyone on this list information in programming those?

The only thing I can think of that might be worth noting is that
`kill-emacs-hook' is meant for non-interactive hooks. If you want your
hook to query the user, you're supposed to use
`kill-emacs-query-functions' instead.

Eric

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> writes:

> Hi Tobias,
>
> Tobias Frischholz writes:
>
>> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and everything.
>
> For org files I use git combined with myrepos and it has been working
> very well for me for several years.  For dotfiles I recently discovered
> vcsh, also synced via myrepos.  It too is working nicely so far.
>
> When I leave one computer I type 'mr update' and everything syncs to a
> server running gitolite that manages bare repos.  When I get to another
> computer I type 'mr update' to sync it again.
>
> It is quite complicated but does the job.
>
> https://myrepos.branchable.com
> https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
> http://gitolite.com/gitolite/index.html

Uh oh, I might have to start playing with this! Though there's something
nice about the morning ritual of going through a bunch of repos and
updating them.

For doing version control of dotfiles or other collections of
non-interrelated single files, I've been curious about (but haven't yet
tried) ESR's src:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Erik Hetzner]

Hi Tobias,

On Fri, 11 Sep 2015 06:59:31 -0700,
Tobias Frischholz <tobias@friolz.com> wrote:
> 
> Hey there!
> 
> I was wondering what is your favorite way of syncing your org files and everything.
> I’ve checked out unison, but I want more of an automated system that synchronizes my two clients via an SSH server.

> […]

I finally settled on the following (although syncthing looks
promising):

1. git for my 2 org dirs (for home & work)

2. git-annex to manage attachments (I have a local patch to
automatically get annex files from a repo when opening, but haven’t
submitted it yet)

3. git-auto-commit-mode with the following setup:

  ;; auto-commit to git if the file is in one of my notes repos
  (defun egh:maybe-git-auto-commit-mode ()
    (let* ((bfn (buffer-file-name))
           (root (and bfn (vc-git-root (buffer-file-name))))
           (full-root (and root (expand-file-name root))))
      (if (or (string-equal full-root "/home/egh/c/notes/h/")
              (string-equal full-root "/home/egh/c/notes/w/"))
          (git-auto-commit-mode +1))))

  (add-hook 'org-mode-hook #'egh:maybe-git-auto-commit-mode)
  (setq-default gac-automatically-push-p t)

4. A simple script called morning to sync it up:
Hope that helps!

  #!/bin/sh
  cd ~/c/notes/h
  git pull origin master
  git annex copy --fast --to=cloud
  git annex sync

best, Erik
--
Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>.

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Rasmus]

Erik Hetzner <egh@e6h.org> writes:

> 3. git-auto-commit-mode with the following setup:

AFAIK, You could probably also use git-annex-assistant for this (with
"normal" git as well as "annex").  It's starting to get to a level where
I'm only a bit hesitant to recommend it...

Rasmus

-- 
Tack, ni svenska vakttorn. Med plutonium tvingar vi dansken på knä!

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Paul Rudin]

Eric S Fraga <e.fraga-hclig2XLE9Zaa/9Udqfwiw@public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Friday, 11 Sep 2015 at 18:42, Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote:
>
> [...]
>
>> I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) which, admittedly, does not
>> require a server nor uses SSH :-). I keep four computers in sync this way,
>> and also use it to send/receive the org files (with MobileOrg) to/from
>
> Thanks for the heads up on this.  The only thing I use Dropbox for is
> MobileOrg and I would love to avoid using a proprietary *and* closed
> system, especially as some of the content is sensitive.

If the content is sensitive you can either encrypt the data yourself
before it goes to Dropbox (see e.g. ecryptfs) or use a service that does
this as part of its process (see e.g. spideroak).

Not that I have anything against doing thing other ways - I'm just
pointing out that privacy concerns don't, of themselves, mean you can't
use Dropbox (or similar).

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Ramon Diaz-Uriarte]

On Sun, 13-09-2015, at 09:07, Paul Rudin <paul@rudin.co.uk> wrote:
> Eric S Fraga <e.fraga@ucl.ac.uk> writes:
>
>> On Friday, 11 Sep 2015 at 18:42, Ramon Diaz-Uriarte wrote:
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>> I use syncthing (https://syncthing.net/) which, admittedly, does not
>>> require a server nor uses SSH :-). I keep four computers in sync this way,
>>> and also use it to send/receive the org files (with MobileOrg) to/from
>>
>> Thanks for the heads up on this.  The only thing I use Dropbox for is
>> MobileOrg and I would love to avoid using a proprietary *and* closed
>> system, especially as some of the content is sensitive.
>
> If the content is sensitive you can either encrypt the data yourself
> before it goes to Dropbox (see e.g. ecryptfs) or use a service that does
> this as part of its process (see e.g. spideroak).
>
> Not that I have anything against doing thing other ways - I'm just
> pointing out that privacy concerns don't, of themselves, mean you can't
> use Dropbox (or similar).


Sure, you are correct. However, if there are Android devices in the mix,
encrypting locally before sending to Dropbox becomes inconvenient (or at
least too inconvenient for me). I am not sure about spideroak's support for
android, and I recall having experienced problems (I no longer remember the
details) with Wuala.



Best,

R.


-- 
Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
Department of Biochemistry, Lab B-25
Facultad de Medicina
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 
Arzobispo Morcillo, 4
28029 Madrid
Spain

Phone: +34-91-497-2412

Email: rdiaz02@gmail.com
       ramon.diaz@iib.uam.es

http://ligarto.org/rdiaz

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Myles English]

Eric,

Eric Abrahamsen writes:

> Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> writes:
>
>> https://myrepos.branchable.com
>> https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
>> http://gitolite.com/gitolite/index.html
>
> Uh oh, I might have to start playing with this! Though there's something
> nice about the morning ritual of going through a bunch of repos and
> updating them.
>
> For doing version control of dotfiles or other collections of
> non-interrelated single files, I've been curious about (but haven't yet
> tried) ESR's src:
>
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/

Probably worth mentioning this alternative to vcsh:

https://github.com/capr/multigit

The only reason I chose vcsh is because it is more popular and I am a
bit a sheep.

Myles

Re: Favorite way of syncing?

[Eric Abrahamsen]

Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> writes:

> Eric,
>
> Eric Abrahamsen writes:
>
>> Myles English <mylesenglish@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>>> https://myrepos.branchable.com
>>> https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
>>> http://gitolite.com/gitolite/index.html
>>
>> Uh oh, I might have to start playing with this! Though there's something
>> nice about the morning ritual of going through a bunch of repos and
>> updating them.
>>
>> For doing version control of dotfiles or other collections of
>> non-interrelated single files, I've been curious about (but haven't yet
>> tried) ESR's src:
>>
>> http://www.catb.org/~esr/src/
>
> Probably worth mentioning this alternative to vcsh:
>
> https://github.com/capr/multigit
>
> The only reason I chose vcsh is because it is more popular and I am a
> bit a sheep.

Thanks :)