Sharing Files

[Marcus]

Hi all,

I have not yet received an invite for SyncApp, so I don't know the feature set of the application. My question is: will it support sharing files with others? I don't just want to sync files between different machines, but also share (specific) files with other users.

Greets

Marcus

[kos13]

Marcus,

SyncApp supports this.

[mrkvs]

How is that actually possible? Could you please give us a short guide for "file sharing"?

I can definitely "share" folders via "secret" code, but files...

[kos13]

Yes you can share folders, but not specific file. You could use http://soshareit.com to share a separate file.

[GreatMarko]

SyncApp is designed to share complete folders, rather than individual files.

The simple solution is to create a folder dedicated for sharing with others, and only drop the files you wish to share into that folder.

There is an alternative (although this would seem to be a very long winded way of achieving what you want, and I wouldn't really recommend it) which is to make use of the ".SyncIgnore" hidden file present in your sync'd folders (as of SyncApp 1.0.90).

This ".SyncIgnore" file allows you to list all the files within the folder that should be ignored by SyncApp. You could, therefore, technically list all the files in your folder apart from the few you wish to be "shared" (sync'd)

...but this could be a laborious process - you'd be far better just creating a dedicated folder for sharing files with others, and only drop in there the files you wish to share!

[DragonDutch]

Can someone direct me to any guide which explains how to share a folder with a receipient? My folders appear to be synching, just don't know how to make them available to family and friends. Apologies in advance for my computer inexperience.

[yottabit]

Hi DragonDutch,

Please read the guide. It's very well-written.

http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync/get-started.html

[yottabit]

My question is: will it support sharing files with others? I don't just want to sync files between different machines, but also share (specific) files with other users.

SyncApp is designed to share complete folders, rather than individual files.

The simple solution is to create a folder dedicated for sharing with others, and only drop the files you wish to share into that folder.

Here's another way! If you're using Windows 6.x (Windows Vista or Windows "7"), use hardlinks to keep the hassle to a minimum.

1. Create a new folder that you will share with BTSync.
   
2. Drop to CLI and use "mklink /H" to hardlink the files you want to share into this new folder.
   
3. Drink a beer and relax!
   

So here's the trick. If you aren't familiar with UNIX, a hardlink is simply another filename pointing to the same data on the disk. So let's say you have a file called MyBigFile located on your Desktop. Well, you don't want to share your whole Desktop, but just that one file. So we do this:

1. Create new folder on Desktop called SharedFolder.
   
2. Open a CLI window (Start -> "cmd" at the bottom -> click cmd.exe in the search results at the top).
   
3. cd %userprofile%\Desktop\SharedFolder
   
4. mklink /H MyBigFile ..\MyBigFile
   

​That's it!

You can use this method to even change the name of the file, but not duplicate the data like a copy would. And with a hardlink, now both files are just pointers to the same data on the disk, so you can feel free to delete one without damaging/deleting the other. For instance, if you hardlink file1 to file2 and file3, you can delete 1 or 2 of those (even file1!) and the others will still work just peachy. And just to be clear, if you edit one of those files, the updates will appear in the others as well (because like I said, they're just different names but pointing to the same data on the disk).

Oh, and as usual, Microsoft implements features into Windows without providing any method of using them from the GUI. Some of these features even require third-party utilities! So sorry about the CLI if you're not comfortable with it, but this is the easiest way to go. There is also a third-party GUI utility called NTFSlink that was used prior to Windows 6.x to provide access to this function before Microsoft even had a CLI utility. I don't know if using it in Windows 6.x is supported, but if you install it you can just right-drag files into the new folder, and from the context menu select "Create Junction Here" (for directories) or "Create Hardlink Here" (for files).

http://sourceforge.n...ts/ntfslinkext/

EDIT: I guess NTFSlink is no longer under development. Here's an alternative that also works with Windows x64: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/hardlinkshellext/hardlinkshellext.html

[DragonDutch]

Thank you...

[GreatMarko]

SyncApp is designed to share complete folders, rather than individual files.

Please note this is an old thread, and some of the information contained within is now obsolete - BitTorrent Sync (then known as SyncApp) DOES now support sharing of specific files within folders through the use of the .SyncIgnore file - hardlinks/folder junctions/symlinks are not required in order to selectively sync!

[yottabit]

The original poster asked about sharing specific files with others because he doesn't want to just "sync files between different machines, but also share (specific) files with other users."

Using hardlinks and/or directory junctions allows him to set up shares of his selective/specific without duplicating/copying/updating/maintaining that data in more than one place.

[jturner]

Along the same lines, is it possible to use this BitTorrent Sync as a replacement for FTP?

If user1 shares their secret to a folder with user2, would it be possible for user2 to be able to view the files/folders that are in user1's secret folder, and then have user2 select the files/folders they would like to download or indicate they would like to sync with?

I am thinking that 'download' would be a 1 time activity, while 'sync' would have the ability to download changes to files/folders when they occur. I could see this functionality being quite useful.

If it is currently not possible, would this be something that could be put on the projects road map?

Thanks. I appreciate your time.