Sync can be used to keep your files up to date, or just to copy them around. It supports a number of different modes and uses a number of techniques in order to ensure that only files that are different are copied, reducing the number of slow writes that are performed on slow devices. Also attributes such as timestamps can easily be copied and changes in time due to daylight savings can be ignored.
The Sync user interface is split into a top half with the jobs, rules and other settings and then two identical halves representing the source and the destination of the sync job. At the top of each of these areas is directory selector, once you have chosen a directory its contents appear in the file list below. There are also buttons for expanding all of the folders you have selected and for selecting a variable.
The table below summarises the different Sync modes that are available. The column headers as where the fileexists, S stands for Source and D for Destination.
Mode | S and D, S newer | S and D, D newer | In S only | In D only | Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Copy | Copy S to D | Copy S to D | Copy S to D | - | Copy every file in the source directory to the destination directory based on the file checks. Deletes nothing. |
Mirror | Copy S to D | Copy S to D | Copy S to D | Delete D | Copy every file in the source directory to the destination directory, and delete every file in the destination directory that is not in the source directory. |
Equalise | Copy S to D | Copy D to S | Copy S to D | Copy D to S | If a file is in both directories, copy the newer to the older; if it’s in only one, copy it to the other. (This ensures that both directories have the newest possible files) |
Move | Copy S to D, Delete S | - | Copy S to D, Delete S | - | Copy every file in the source directory that is not already in the destination directory, and delete it from the source directory. |
Clean | - | - | - | Delete D | Delete from the destination directory every file / folder that is not in the source directory. This is effectively half of a mirror operation. |
File checks are the rules Toucan uses to determine whether a file should be copied or not. If the destination file does not exist then it is automatically copied. When multiple checks are selected they all all tested until one is true, at which point the file is copied. It no checks are selected then files are always copied.
When you click the preview button the files that are affected by the settings you have chosen will be coloured to show what changes will be applied to them, if any. The meaning of the colour will be shown when you hover over it, and all of the possible given colours are given in the summary table below.
Colour | Meaning |
---|---|
Black | The original file |
Red | The folder will only exists if it contain sub-file / sub-folders after the sync |
Grey | The file will be deleted |
Blue | The file / folder will be added |
Green | The file will be overwritten |