lnsync 0.7.0

Sync by content with hard link support, fast fdupes, and much more.

Overview

lnsync provides sync-by-content of local file trees with support for hard links.

Features

This program provides partial one-way sync of local directories by only renaming, linking and delinking, without copying or deleting file data. (Empty directories not on the source are also removed.)

Arbitrary renaming, linking/delinking (but not deleting) in the source is quickly replicated in the target.

While not providing full syncing, lnsync may be used as a preprocessing step for other tools such as rsync.

Hashes

Files are identified by their content hash, using xxHash (a fast, non-cryptographic hash function).

To avoid recomputation, hash values are stored in local databases, one file per top directory.

By default, the hash database is a file at the base directory with basename matching lnsync-[0-9]+.db. Only one such file should exist there. (A different prefix or an altogether different file may be specified.)

File modification times are used to detect stale hash values. Modification times are not synced to the target.

Based on these hashes, additional features are provided, including duplicate detection.

Files vs File Paths

On most file systems, a file may be reached by multiple paths, which are aliases, or hard links, to that file. Removing the last hard link to a file means deleting it.

lnsync operations refer to files, not file paths. If a file has two links, it will not come up as a duplicate.

Offline Trees

There is also an option to save the file structure (not contents) under a directory to a combined hash/metadata database. These offline trees can be used in most lnsync commands in place of an local directory, e.g. as the source in a sync command.

Files Handled

Hash databases are ignored by lnsync operations and care should be taken not to overwrite them when syncing with other tools.

File ownership and permissions are ignored. Files which cannot be read are skipped, as are symbolic links.

Installing

Install the latest version from the PyPI repository with pip install -U lnsync or clone the repo with git clone https://github.com/mrsimoes/lnsync.git and run python setup.py install.

Alternatives for Linux

Some of the many tools for syncing with rename detection:

• There are patches for rsync (see --detect-renamed) that provide renaming on the target, relying on file size and modification time, for matching files in nearby directories. rsync can preserve hard links and sync with remote rsync instances.

• rclone provides sync-by-rename for local as well as an amazing array of remote clients. It allows caching file hashes, after some configuration. However, it does not preserve hard links.

• unison and bsync provide network syncing with rename detection, but do not preserve hard links.

• git itself identifies and stores files by content, and has been adapted for syncing.

• Support in modern file systems (e.g. btrfs) for snapshots may be adapted for syncing.

In addition to syncing, lnsync allows using the file hash database to search for files according to a variety of criteria.

Usage Scenarios

Syncing

If your photos are at /home/you/Photos and its backup is at /mnt/disk/Photos, then lnsync sync /home/you/Photos /mnt/disk/Photos will sync the target. For a dry run, use the -n switch.

After syncing, two database files are created, one at the source /home/you/Photos and another at the target /mnt/disk/Photos. File hashes are computed, as needed, and stored in those files. The database filenames include a random suffix, to help avoid accidental overwriting when syncing with a tool other than lsync.

To obtain an rsync command that will complete syncing, skipping lnsync database files, run lnsync rsync /home/you/Photos /mnt/disk/Photos. If the rsync options provided are suitable, run the command again with the -x switch to execute. Alternatively, run lnsync syncr /home/you/Photos /mnt/disk/Photos to complete those two steps in one go.

Finally, to compare source and target, run lnsync cmp /home/you/Photos /mnt/disk/Photos.

Other Operations

To find duplicate files, run lnsync fdupes /home/you/Photos. Use -z to compare by size only.

Use -H to treat hard links to the same file as distinct. If this option is not given, for each multiple-linked with other duplicates, a path is arbitrarily picked and printed.

To find all files in Photos which are not in the backup (under any name): lnsync onfirstonly /home/you/Photos /mnt/disk/Photos. To find all files with jpg extension, lnsync search /home/you/Photos "*.jpg".

To have any operation on a subdir of /home/you/Photos use the hash database at /home/you/Photos, include the option root=/home/you/Photos under section /home/you/Photos/** of your config file. (See Configuration Files below.)

For example, to sync the subdir /home/you/Photos/Best to another target, using the hash database at /home/you/Photos: lnsync sync /home/you/Photos/Best --root=/home/you/Photos /mnt/eframe/.

Command Reference

All lnsync commands are lnsync [<global-options>] <command> [<cmd-options>] [<cmd-parameters>].

Syncing

• sync [options] <source> <target> syncs a target dir from a source dir (or offline tree).

First, target files are matched to source files. Each matched target file is associated to a single source file. If either file system supports hard links, a file may have multiple pathnames. lnsync will not complain if the match is not unique or some files are not matched on either source and/or target.

For each matched target file, its pathnames are made to match those of the corresponding source file, by renaming, deleting, or creating hard links. New intermediate subdirectories are created as needed on the target and directories which become empty on the target are removed.

• -n Dry-run, just show which operations would be performed.

• -z Match files by size only. In this case, hash databases are not created or updated.

• -M=<size> Excludes all files larger than , which may be given in human form, e.g. 10k, 2.1M, 3G.

• --exclude <glob_pattern> ... <glob_pattern> Exclude source files and directories by glob patterns. There is a corresponding --include and these are interpreted as in rsync --exclude <pattern> source/ target (beware, compatability has not been fully tested).

• A file or directory is excluded if it matches an exclude pattern before matching any include pattern.

• An initial slash anchors a pattern to the corresponding file tree root and a trailing slash means the pattern applies only to directories.

• Each --exclude and --include option applies to all file trees in the command.

• --once-exclude=<pattern> and --once-include=<pattern> apply only to the following file tree.

• --only-include <PATTERN> ... is equivalent to --include="*/" --include <PATTERNS> ... --exclude="*".

• --root <DIR> For each online location that is a subdir of

  , use the hash database at to read and update. If several in the command line are suitable for a location, use the last one given.

• rsync [options] <tree> <dir> [rsync-options] Prints an rsync command that would sync target dir from source, skipping lnsync database files. Source may be a dir or an offline tree. Check the default rsync options provided are what you want. To also run the rsync command, use the -x switch.

• syncr This convenience command is like sync, but follows it by executing the command created by rsync just above.

Creating, Updating, and Accessing the Hash Database

• update <dir> Update the hash database, creating a new database if none exists, and rehashing all new files and those with a changed modification time (mtime). Accepts --exclude=<pattern> options.
• rehash <dir> [<relpath>]+ Force rehashing files specified by paths relative to the root dir.
• subdir <dir> <relsubdir> Update the database at relsubdir using any hash value already present in the hash database for dir.
• mkoffline <dir> <outputfile> Update database at dir and create corresponding offline database at outputfile. Use -f to force overwriting the output file.
• cleandb <dir> Remove outdated entries and re-compact the database.
• lookup <tree> [<relpath>+] Returns (either from db or by recomputing) the hash value for the files, where tree may be a a directory or an offline tree.

Finding Files

Files vs Paths

These commands operate on files, as opposed to paths.

Two paths to the same file do not consitute by themselves a duplication and, if there are two identical file, then fdupes will output a single, arbitrarily picked path for each file when outputing the result.

To instead operate on paths, use the --hardlinks switch on these commands.

To operate on files, but print all hardlinks, instead a of picking one, use --alllinks.

• cmp <tree1> <tree2> Recursively compares two file trees. Accepts --exclude=<pattern> .
• fdupes [-h] [<tree>]+ Find files duplicated anywhere on the given trees.
• onall [<tree>]+, lnsync onfirstonly [<tree>]+, lnsync onlastonly [<tree>]+ Find files as advertised. Some options: -M prunes by maximum size; -0 prunes empty files; -1 prints each group of files in a single line, separated by spaces and with escaped backslashes and spaces, like fdupes; -s sorts output by size.
• search <tree> [<globpat>]+ Find files one of whose relative paths matches one of the given glob patterns (which are as in --exclude).

Other Commands

• check [<tree>] [<path>]* Recompute hashes for given files and compare to the hash stored in the database, to check for changes/bitrot.

Configuration Files

Optional command-line arguments are read from an INI-style configuration file. (The format is not very suitable to store default options, at most one entry per key.)

Unless otherwise specified, the config file is searched at at ./lnsync.cfg, ~/lnsync.cfg, or ~/.lnsync.cfg location may nbe specified. By default, it

Entries are key = value, the key can match the short or long option name (n or dry-run).

For options taking taking multiple values (e.g. exclude), separate them by line breaks.

Options in the DEFAULT section apply as if given at the beginning of command line input.

For each location in the command line, options are read from all sections whose name glob-matches that location (directory or offline file). These options apply as if given just before that location.

For example, to have an option applied to all locations, include it in a section[**].

To specify another configuration file altogether, --config FILENAME. To not load any config file: --no-config.

Origin, Status, and Future Development

This package started as a learning project. I've found it useful enough to polish for publication, but as with any work in progress, it should be used with adequate caution.

Feedback, suggestions, comments, and corrections are very welcome.

You can support this project with bitcoin at 17HS828pkQMiXZGy7UNbA49TYCz7LAQ2ze.

This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions. See the GNU General Public Licence v3 for details.

Caveats and Limitations

• Linux only.

• Local directories only.

• Depends on mtime to detect file content changes.

• If source files A, B, C (with pairwise distinct contents) are renamed on target in a cycle to C, A, B, sync is currently not supported.

• Only readable files and readable+accessible directories are read. Other files and dirs, as well as symlinks, pipes, special devices are ignored.

• Minimal support for case-insensitive but case-preserving file systems like vfat: if a target file name differs from source match in case only, target is not updated.

Release Notes

• v0.7.0: Custom hashing function, better command line argument parsing, custom db location, bug fixes.
• v0.6.1: Thread improvements and bug fixes.
• v0.6.0: Threaded hashing and tree scanning for much better performance. Internal refactoring.
• v0.5.3: New syncr. Changed mkoffline syntax. More output options (--alllinks). Hard link-aware check and cmp, improved search.
• v0.5.2: Search files by file path glob pattern. Multiple patterns on --exclude. More powerful configuration files. --root now allowed in mkoffline and rehash. Major rewrite of the command line and config file parsers. Optimize onfirstonly and sync to do less hashing. Fix bugs in --root, cmp, check, and more. Wildcards in config section names.
• v0.4.0: Drop Python 2 compatibility. Add config files. Bug fixes.
• v0.3.8: Less hashing on onfirstonly. Sort file search output by size. Adjust user output levels.
• v0.3.7: Bug fix on reading offline trees. Change output levels and some messages.
• v0.3.6: New: --include and --include-once options. Bug fix: wrong exit code.
• v0.3.5: Bug fix: not excluding dirs in offline mode.
• v0.3.3: Python 3 support.
• v0.3.2: New --root option to allow reading and updating a root tree database when querying subtrees.
• v0.3.0: Exclude files by glob pattern in sync and other commands. Better terminal output. Major code overhaul.
• v0.1.9: Improved sync algorithm. Remove directories left empty after sync.
• v0.1.0: Initial version.

Possible Improvements

• Better configuration file format.
• More parallel hashing, multiprocessing instead of threads.
• More output sorting options, e.g. by name or mtime.
• Make --include and --exclude patterns more compatible with rsync.
• Store Unicode file names in offline database to support other operating systems. Currently stored as-is.
• Detect renamed directories for a compact sync schedule.
• Partial hashes for quicker comparison of same-size files.
• Check for duplicates by content, not just content hash.
• Update target mtimes.
• argparsecomplete support