Darke Files is a version control and file synchronization system

• unison

  27 3,714 8.5 OCaml

  Unison file synchronizer (by bcpierce00)

I've tested many file synchronization. I rely via scripts on Unison, originally authored by the computer scientist Benjamin Pierce, and now decades of tweaking by a strong open source community.

https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison

I'd love to see Darke Files get everything right that Unison gets right, that nearly all commercial projects get wrong, through a blend of arrogance and ignorance:

* Meta data. It takes a lot to insure that two copies of a MacOS file appear identical to a user. There used to be a test suite on the web that embarrassed everybody.

* Atomic folders such as ".git" or an application bundle. A prototypical example is a MacOS disk image, supported by a folder of many small files. This helps minimize incremental backup and transfer. Unison lets you specify the conflict resolution at the folder level, all-or-nothing decide which copy or fix it.

* Symbolic links. This is wildly complicated by users, sure they're right, who want special handling to hack features into sync software that isn't there. A symbolic link is just a file, with correct use the responsibility of the user. You wouldn't want sync software stopping to view your porn, right? They're just files, not the sync software's business.

I use Dropbox for various purposes because I need to, but they bungle more of this than one would expect. For example, a typical MacOS application bundle can have internal symbolic links a typical user never notices, pointing the "current" version of resources to a versioned folder. Last I checked, Dropbox expands the symbolic link into a redundant copy, wasting space without kneecapping the app.

One could go on...

• WorkOS

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