Sync Mavericks Tags


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They are stored as extended attributes.

BtSync does unfortunately not care about these, because they

are platform specific.

 

I think they should be respected, instead, as much as an OS can support them.

 

As a starting point, I would support them by additional files, maybe with an OS dependant

suffix, like:

 

my_file.rtf

my_file.rtf.osxattr

 

The osxattr file would only exist if there are special attributes.

 

When transferring between OS X machines, the attribute files would be evaluated

and applied after the transfer. A Windows machine would just carry them around.

 

cheers - chris

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Not sure how your define "better", or if I misunderstood you:

 

Whatever extra attributes BtSync supports, it is necessary to make that transparent.

BtSync can use any peer for any piece of data, therefore they all must be compatible.

 

At the moment, BtSync takes the simplest approach of just supporting the common subset.

 

If there is anything in extent, then it needs some representation on every supported platform,

for exactly that reason of interchangeable peers.

 

Alternatively there would need to be another layer which is always compatible, and what the

user sees in his folder would be just an OS specific representation, but all missing info is

shared in some extra structure.

This would be a little bit like sharing git repositories with all needed extra info, but the user gets

only the os-specific check-out.

 

I'm not sure which approach is the right road for the future. I also think that the developers are

not yet sure where this journey goes, so the minimalistic approach was probably a good compromise

to start at all.

 

cheers - chris

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  • 1 month later...

I'm uninstalling BitTorrent Sync because it doesn't support syncing tags. Without that feature, it is almost useless to me.

 

I should note that Dropbox and other syncing services do sync extended attributes such as tag metadata.

 

...You should also note that Sync is currently in "Beta" and therefore cannot be expected to have every other feature right now that every other sync service has!

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  • 2 months later...

So I noticed that in the release notes for 1.3 it says that syncing extended attributes is supported in OS X (which is great!)

 

Since Mavericks tags use extended attributes I figured this meant they would sync... However in my tests they do not. :(  Basically I've just been tagging photo and video files on one Mac (10.9.2 FWIW), however even though the files sync just fine to another Mac (10.9.2 as well) the files themselves are not tagged.

 

Any ideas?  Perhaps BT Sync syncing extended attributes ≠ syncing Mavericks tags? 

Edited by link266
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So turns out I was the syncing-equilivant of the guy who thinks his speakers dow't work but he unknowingly has mute on!

 

I was on a pre-1.3 version of BT Sync... I could have sworn I had turned on auto-updates but I guess not.  FWIW I updated it on both of my Macs and now syncing Mavericks tags work FLAWLESSLY!  Nice work on whoever's job it was to implement this.

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Found that out the hard way... for days now my mac and linux machine have not finished syncing... it apparently was trying to sync an xattr :/ I don't even know how it ended up getting an attribute ... -.- ( maybe sublime text :/ )

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  • 2 months later...

For what it's worth, I thought I should mention that I'm seeing tags being lost using 1.3.106, syncing with an Android phone. I am kind of assuming that this is due to the Android version of the client not yet being caught up with the desktop version, and that this is something that will be fixed on a mobile update. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

mediapathic,

 

Mac's tags are not synced, apart from those: 

com.apple.FinderInfo

com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags
com.apple.ResourceFork
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemFinderComment
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemStarRating
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTagTime
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTags
com.apple.metadata:kMDItemOMUserTagTime

 

other platforms' tags are also note yet synced. 

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