synchro 0.0.1

Customisable file transfers using rsync

synchro

Customisable file transfers using rsync

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About

Synchro is a simple python-based tool for customisable file movements, e.g. copying data to a backup server.

Synchro currently supports/includes:

• Transfer via ssh
• Archiving using tar (and option extraction)
• Option to only transfer data when a specific file is present
• Logging to file

To install

To install, you need a Unix-based system with Python (>3.6) installed, and then:

pip install synchro

However, it is recommended to install conda (e.g. miniconda) first and create a new environment:

conda create --name synchro python=3.9
conda activate synchro
pip install synchro

If you don't have rsync installed, you will need to do so. E.g. on macOS it can be installed with homebrew:

brew install rsync

To use

synchro has two modes of use on the command line, either with flags, or a config file.

Command line flags

Not yet implemented

Config file

The only input is the path to a source directory (the one being transferred).

synchro /path/to/source_directory

This source directory must contain a synchro.conf file which contains the information needed for the transfer. Including:

• destination - Where to move the data to e.g. /path/to/destination_directory)
• untar - Untar the data after copying? e.g. y
• create_dest - Create the destination directory if it doesn't exist? e.g. y
• transfer_ready_file - A file that must exist in the source directory (or relative path) for the transfer to initative. This option is ignored if the line is missing from synchro.conf

Example:

destination = /path/to/destination_directory
untar = y 
create_dest = y 
transfer_ready_file = ready.txt

N.B. the destination can also be on a remote host (an ssh key must be set up), e.g.:

destination = user@IP:/path/to/destination_directory

To use with cron

N.B. This assumes you've installed in a conda environment

Example - running file transfers hourly (tested on CentOS)

• Create a text file in /etc/cron.hourly called synchro

cd /etc/cron.hourly
touch synchro

• Add synchro commands to the text file using the full path to the synchro executable

/home/user/miniconda3/envs/synchro/bin/synchro /path/to/directory1
/home/user/miniconda3/envs/synchro/bin/synchro /path/to/directory2

This will then try to backup directory1 & directory2 every hour.