i should be working (but i'm fixing my computer).

This post is about iFolders, which after a long ramble, I will get to...

Some years ago, my computers were pretty well sync'd.  They were windows machines and I sync'd directories via briefcase, which was clunky, but so long as I remembered to run it, I could count on each of my computers having the same stuff.  But briefcasey got obnoxiously slow -- and in particular, directories that were briefcases became unusable to access because of the long wait time for access.

...

Around then I had mostly migrated to Linux and began using various open source tools.  But, I had some data loss disasters which suggested to me either the tools or my implementation of them was defective.  I used a free version of a very nice java tool -- but the free version became increasingly restrictive to the point of uselessness.  And the per computer license fees were prohibitive for my "operation."  Also, there were some data loss issues and some events of the synchronization links mysteriously unlinking without my noticing.

Sheesh.

But, since the latter system was a transparent/background/real-time synchronizer it was far superior to a system that required me to run it manually and to remember what was in sync and what was not.

About a year ago, I began experimenting with iFolder on OpenSUSE.  The install was puzzling and difficult for me and mistake-recovery even worse.  Hardware failures and changes put the project again on the back burner.

But avid readers of this blog (yeah, right) will note that a few days ago, I re-implemented an iFolder server.  There are issues to solve, but so far, YAY!

I seemingly have more computers and switch computers more often than the average user.  I run a good portion of my documents, etc., from an encrypted system in the cloud.  But, this means there is a fair amount of setup to get a new computer to access my cloud.  And, the other stuff isn't sync'd at all.  Yikes!  What a mess!

Then there is my music collection, that has to get from iTunes to iPod to Banshee.  I have a lot of music that has never even made it into the system as the result of all my stumbling about with the sync system.  Originally I used briefcase -- since after all, iTunes is on my windows machine.  My very old windows machine, which of course means it barely runs anymore as the result of all the windows updates and patches.  I then switched to Unison -- and I like Unison, though I had an inexplicable disaster on another machine at one point, which has made me nervous about using it.

Before I go further, one reminder to ME -- keep a valid backup separate from the sync system!  Because here's the problem.  If I disasterize something on one computer and propagate it to all my computers via iFolder, then recovery is going to be difficult and/or impossible.

But ... moving on.

It appears that maintaining sync'd copies of "stuff" is totally simple with the iFolder server.  I just put it a subdirectory of my iFolder directory and magically, everything shows up on all of my other computers.

With some forethought, it's possible to sync existing directories.  Let's say I want my "desktop" folder to have the same documents.  On one computer, I move desktop to the iFolder -- and then put a symlink back where "Desktop" used to be.  Now, I open Desktop on computer #2, copy any different files from this directory to the one in iFolder (it's sync'd by now, of course).  Then I delete the Desktop folder on computer #2 and replace it, also, with a symlink.  Now both desktops are the same.  If I drop something new on desktop 1, as soon as computer 2 syncs, there it is on that desktop as well.  Same works for documents.

Ok, so far so good.  But what I would also really like is to not be constantly re-creating the wheel every time I switch computers.  How the screen is set up affects my productivity.  I want the same links in the same place, etc.  I need my gpg files, firefox configuration, etc., etc.  manually re-implementing or copying all this stuff is really a lot of trouble.

Here's where things get tricky -- some settings are system specfic.  Some get written over when software is installed or updated.  Some keep track of the current user state on the particular computer.  I DO NOT want to inadvertently copy over these files.

So, set up requires some careful planning (and no doubt will have some inadvertent glitches).  In any event the first step:  I use A LOT of icons on my LXDE desktop.  I have slim panels on three sides of the screen and a conky read-out at the top.  Every time I add another icon -- do I now have to go recreate this on each other computer?

Answer now is NO!  Following the process noted above -- moving the source folder to the iFolder, symlinking back to the original location, matching up all the files from each computer before symlinking the next one -- results in matching desktops.   This is especially useful to LXDE, since (as far as I know) it is not possible to drag and drop icons onto the panels.  So, although I have text-editor links to the config files making it fairly simple to add icons, it's still cumbersome.

But all I had to do was drop the lxpanel file into iFolder and symlink it back to its correct location (.config).  Cool! -- the only "defect" to this system is that I do have some icons that are pretty much machine specific, so won't do anything on the second computer.  With more selective configuration -- eg, symlinking the actual panel config files rather than the entire lxpanel directory and subdirectories, I could work around this.  But, at moment -- I'll just live with a few extraneous icons.

Same process will work for other config files, but once again, it's important to differentiate between those that are machine specific and those that are not.  And one I won't be doing is .kde4 -- can you imagine crashing one plasma desktop and then inadvertently propagating it to all the other computers?  Yikes!  (Which is, of course, a reminder that my plasma desktop is crashed on one computer and I haven't gotten around to recovering it yet.  Thank goodness for LXDE.)

But, lastly, I want to comment on how some changes can make computer life significantly better.  In the last week or so I have (a) completed a new php calendar-notes system relevant to my main employment; (b) duplicated my mySQL install so that I can sync the system from my netbook to my entire network; and (c) implemented iFolder to sync my documents and settings.

Assuming nothing crashes -- iFolder, for instance is now on a pretty old, barely functional computer that keeps threatening to die -- these changes are GREAT!  Although the setup and programming of these features took a fair amount of time, I am now getting back a good deal of that time as the result of not having to manually do these several tasks.  Together with the peace of mind of knowing I have some better backup, that whichever laptop I grab will have a "familiar" desktop and will also have all of my necessary documents.  And, the next time I have a computer death -- eg., the recent Gateway netbook fatality -- recreating my systems on a new machine will be as easy as installing iFolders and symlinking the right directories.

AWESOME!!!