Questions tagged [unison]

Unison is a bidirectional, conflict detecting file-synchronization tool for OSX, Unix, and Windows. It allows two replicas of a collection of files and directories to be stored on different hosts (or different disks on the same host), modified separately, and then brought up to date by propagating the changes in each replica to the other.

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How to get unison to back up an entire file system starting at /?

I'm using unison 2.52.1 both on my linux machine (Ubuntu version 20.04) and my Mac (MacOS version 11.7). I want to use unison to back up my entire linux filesystem (excluding a few specific ...
HippoMan's user avatar
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How folder modification time affects unison file synchronization? (Windows)

I used unison to mirror a folder in Windows (using options -force and -times). It worked well, but the folders modification time has changed in the destination and now original and new folders differs ...
gavioto's user avatar
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Unison not working after upgrade to catalina

Unison stopped working as soon as I upgraded to Mac OS X Catalina. When I start the pre-compiled binary (latest version 2.51.2), its window just sits there with the spinning icon indicating that it's ...
unison user's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
431 views

Unison on MS Windows 10 - cannot connect

I am trying to set up unison to sync to an Ubuntu web server (called "example.com" below) from a Windows 10 PC. I am running unison version 2.48.4 on both computers, and my version of Ubuntu is 18.04 ...
Free Radical's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
129 views

Unison ignore all files in path except for html files

I want to be able to ignore all files under any directory named build except for .html files. So for example: Ignored: MyProject/build/manifest.xml MyProject/Package1/build/code.java Not Ignored ...
Adam Griffiths's user avatar
1 vote
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403 views

Make unison delay synchronization until file transfer is complete

I have two physical sites with a very slow link between them. Each site has a Linux (Debian 10) server and all clients on those sites are Windows. I'm using Samba for file sharing within the sites, ...
elmeunick's user avatar
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1 answer
347 views

unison: two computers, one external hard drive

I'd like to keep a common synchronized folder on two laptops. (With lots of media files and such, so can't use git, but on the other hand, very few changes needing reconciled.) The easiest way to do ...
John Lawrence Aspden's user avatar
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835 views

Uninstall newer version of Unison and install older version using OS X brew

Running Unison I get the following error: Fatal error: Received unexpected header from the server: expected "Unison 2.51 with OCaml>=4.01.2\n" but received "Unison 2.48\n\000\000\000\017", which ...
tachyon's user avatar
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Has anyone tried to monitor kbfs with incrond?

While I am able to run unison -batch keybase and everything works fine, I tried this in incrontab: /run/user/1000/keybase/kbfs/ IN_ALL_EVENTS flock -n /tmp/synclock unison -batch keybase with the ...
Diagon's user avatar
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2 votes
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Linux file/directory ownership: I can cp a file but not backup via unison

I have a question on Linux file/directory ownership that is allowing me to copy a file using cp, but not back it up via the utility unison. The problem appears to be in the change of ownership for a ...
Diagon's user avatar
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Can Unison be made to ignore bind mounts or hard links?

I'm looking for the best way to sync my home directory to and from a 120GB USB drive. The catch is that I use bind mounts (which I don't want to be followed) and hard links (which I do want to be ...
Jesse the Wind Wanderer's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
313 views

How do I keep two external drives synced in two ways?

I'm running MacOS High Sierra and just got a new 3TB external USB hard drive. On this drive, I have set up one 500GB encrypted MacOS Extended volume. I also have another 500GB portable external hard ...
astrarum's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
4k views

Unison not ignoring paths

I'm trying to ignore .git, .bundle and node_module directories from my sync. I've tried a heap of different combinations trying to get it to work but every time I sync I can see all of those ...
Marklar's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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How do you ignore all files but not subdirectories with Unison?

I want to sync the content of all subdirectories of a given root but only a few files in the root itself. To do so I would like to ignore all files using the ignore directive (keeping all ...
soriak's user avatar
  • 211
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Unison: don't treat root folder deletion as something that needs to sync?

I'm trying to get Unison to sync between two folders, but on one side, if I don't have the existing folder, it tries to delete the other side (the folder with everything in it). So if I have /...
Max's user avatar
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1 answer
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Prefer the other machine without having to set up a socket?

I use Unison to sync stuff between some Linux devices. I want to have a profile set up where, if I'm running unison from machine A to sync between A and B, I can override my prefer = newer setting and ...
Jimi-James's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
16k views

How do I ignore folders and its subdirectories in Unison sync

I use Unison to sync website projects across my machines, in one of my machines I would like to avoid sycning (both ways)some folders contained with in the folders I watch: /vendor /node_modules /...
Imran's user avatar
  • 415
2 votes
2 answers
140 views

Mirror 2 linux machines

I have a notebook with Fedora 25 and a online server with Fedora 25 too. I want to mirror my notebook with my server in a such way that, if I connect direct on the server with NoMachine, it will be ...
Renato Ferreira's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
571 views

Using Unison to sync only folders named `src`

I have a laptop which is connected to a cloud workstation. All my compilation happens on the cloud workstation, but I modify files on my laptop. I want to sync files between the two, but I want only ...
Sacha T Red's user avatar
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521 views

unison-fsmonitor fails on BashOnWindows

When running Unison on BashOnWindows, I receive the following error when trying to run in file watching mode: Fatal error: Filesystem watcher error: unexpected error 22 while adding a watcher The ...
johnnyodonnell's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
256 views

Unison with macOS and times set to true (times = true)

I am using Unison for a 2-way sync between a MacBook Pro (macOS Sierra) and an external drive (Firewire). I am using the GUI version, Unison 2.48. In the profile .prf I add times = true, however, ...
Fernando Sousa's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
613 views

Unison sync of sshfs mount - what can go wrong if the connection breaks?

I have a cloud storage server that I would like to sync with multiple computers. I have access via rsync, SFTP, or WebDAV, but no shell access. So I can't run Unison on the server. My first solution ...
André's user avatar
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8 votes
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Making unison ignore file property differences

I'm trying to use unison (the GUI) to synchronize two folders; unfortunately, one of them is a Windows drive mountpoint with properties set to 0777 - and unison shows that as a difference which ...
einpoklum's user avatar
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2 votes
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Unison sync with WD NAS

I am trying to set up a (2-way) sync with a WD mycloud mirror NAS. The clients run Ubuntu, and I thought Unison would be a good way to do this. I mounted the NAS share on the client, using nfs sudo ...
Sanjay Manohar's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
338 views

What happens if shutdown command kills my unison cron job?

I have an Arch linux box at home that I power off quite frequently (the power supply is noisy and it annoys my girlfriend...!). The box has a number of cron jobs running the unison utility, designed ...
user1911388's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
2k views

What is the easiest way to keep an Unison profile synchronized across machines that cannot communicate directly

I am using Unison to synchronize some files between my home computer and my work computer. However, the two computers cannot connect to each other directly via ssh so I synchronize via an USB thumb ...
hugomg's user avatar
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1 answer
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using unison with bitvise

I am trying to use unison to sync a Windows machine (via ssh, cygwin) with a Windows Server 2012R2 machine (via sshd, cygwin). I would like to switch fully over to using Bitvise Client and Server to ...
RJ-'s user avatar
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1 answer
230 views

Using unison between two hosts over differents networks

We want to synchronize a directory, called docs between two hosts, called server and laptop, using unison. So we have a unison profile docs.prf that defines the roots and gives a list of preferred ...
Tom-Tom's user avatar
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1 answer
947 views

How do I make Unison behave like rsync?

I have two roots, /sync and ssh://bob@remotehost//sync. These roots contain three subfolders: paul, bob and sam. I currently sync them using the following script: rsync -a --delete --delete-excluded -...
fuumind's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
5k views

Auto-resolving conflict with unison

I've set up a custom automated sync between 2 folders (in OSX) with unison with the following line: unison folder1 folder2 -batch -debug update+ Which worked fine until I encountered: ...
geotheory's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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Sync with remote encrypted storage

I'm trying to keep a folder tree in sync between several computers. Currently, I'm using unison in a star topology, with a central remote server. I want the data on the server to be encrypted, so on ...
Matei David's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
2k views

Can I synchronize Sublime Text?

I would like to synchronize my entire Sublime Text 3 between my desktop and laptop. I use Ubuntu on both machine. I think if I just sync the entire /home/<username>/.config/sublime-text-3 ...
KOB's user avatar
  • 103
1 vote
1 answer
128 views

How to keep two directories on two unconnected machines in sync via emailing of delta-archives

My situation is that I have two directories on two different computers (one Windows machine, OSX machine) and I need to keep the two directories on the two machines in sync (= mirrored), so that they ...
halloleo's user avatar
  • 375
4 votes
2 answers
6k views

Sync multiple hosts using unison

I am trying to keep in sync three machines, on one of which I run unison to sync the other two. This 'star' architecture is advertised in the unison manual: Using Unison to Synchronize More Than ...
highsciguy's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
227 views

How to back up a password database and to keep 15 older versions?

I mainly work on linux at home and on windows at work. I use the open source password manager KeePass and it works great. I back up my document files often using Unison file synchroniser. I use ...
r0berts's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
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How can I run a non-service EXE on Windows XP as a service that will always run and automatically restart?

I have an executable (unison.exe in server mode) that I wish to run as automatically starting service on a Windows XP machine. I've installed it using the instsrv.exe and anysrv.exe method (tools ...
EnemyBagJones's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
244 views

Synchronizing folders, configurations, programs, local server and database on 2 debian machines

I am using debian both on a laptop and inside a virtual machine on another computer. I want to be able to synchronize those 2 systems in both ways so that I can do some work say on the VM, then ...
Iam Zesh's user avatar
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3 votes
0 answers
276 views

Retaining creation date with unison

Is there a way to retain creation dates using unison? I can preserve the modification times, but I also need creation dates. Edit: OS in use are BusyBox (EXT4) and OS X (Extended Journal)
Imran's user avatar
  • 415
0 votes
1 answer
2k views

Unison profiles root/path issues

I am trying to sync two folders with each other (one local, one remote) using unison. If I use a standard command like this.. unison -times /Volumes/My\ HD/Work ssh://myremoteserver//volume1/My\ ...
Imran's user avatar
  • 415
0 votes
1 answer
5k views

ash: command not found

On my NAS I have installed Unison package, which works when ssh'd into the NAS with this $NAS unison -version. However when running the command locally without ssh'ing to the system first using ssh ...
Imran's user avatar
  • 415
1 vote
1 answer
2k views

Errors installing ocaml using homebrew on OS X

I'm trying to install objective-ocaml on my Mac to compile another application (Unison) I would like to install however I'm getting errors doing so. imrans-mac:/ Imran$ brew doctor Warning: You ...
Imran's user avatar
  • 415
2 votes
1 answer
1k views

Backup files from Linux client to Windows Server

I'm trying to backup my files from my Linux box to my Windows Server 2008 as a push, and when I delete them from my Linux box, they remain on my Windows Server. I've found lots of sources that are ...
Andrew's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
347 views

two-way sync between mac and unix

I would like to work on a directory on two different macs and have access to a unix server that I ssh into. I would like to just start a script at the end of the day that let's me upload all my new/...
reviewer3's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
2k views

Will the option NOATIME in /etc/fstab ruin my Unison synchronizations?

I read here in ArchWiki that the option noatime can improve hard disk performance and durability: The use of noatime, nodiratime or relatime can improve drive performance. Linux by default uses ...
Mephisto's user avatar
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0 votes
1 answer
563 views

Unison fails to synchronize some git repositories

I use Unison 2.40.65 on Kubuntu 13.04, both computer use ecryptfs to encrypt the home folder. I try to sync my complete home folder to my netbook, I get errors that the temp file disappeared, see ...
Martin Ueding's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
3k views

How to use unison to sync files in ext4 filesystem with FAT filesystem? (permission bit)

My machine is linux ext4. I have an external hard drive with FAT. I can syn most of the files without any problem. However, there is always a few files having permission problems. I tried to use ...
drdot's user avatar
  • 105
17 votes
1 answer
9k views

How to make unison ignore all files with .swp extension

How to make unison (file synchronization) to ignore files with .swp extensions? what should i add on the prf file?
Kokizzu's user avatar
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How do I ignore errors with Unison?

I'm trying to synchronize two directories using Unison, however if it encounters a file with an error, then it skips the entire directory! I don't believe it should skip the whole directory, and ...
Chloe's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
2k views

How to tell unison the local replica is just local (doesn't matter what hostname)?

I've been having this problem for a while. My unison profile says: root = /Users/mylogin root = ssh://mylogin@mydesktop//home/myloign I run Unison from everywhere in the world to sync against my ...
hectorpal's user avatar
  • 2,503
5 votes
1 answer
766 views

Synchronize two directories on linux pc

I need a distributed filesystem (or a synchronization tool) that is capable of keeping a directory synchronized across 4 pc. My requirements are: offline access (data must be available offline on ...
Gab's user avatar
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