Synchronize Samba share

I've not used Windows XP a lot. How does that works. You have a local copy
of all the shares contents ? Or you have a synchronize option to turn on/off on
the shares ?
Is the synchronize bi-directional ?

You can see your shares in Explorer (neighboorhood).
Some shares does't need to be synchronized.
But others need to be synchronized.

So, I will explain you what I do on Window$ computers
to have smb shares available even if server is out...

I want to say that users don't see the difference when they are on-line
and when they are off-line because they always get their documents in the
same directory (in fact it's a virtual directory as you will see later)
They only have a popup when off-line

First select the remote directory you want to synchronize
Second assign this directory to a drive letter (the virtual directory)
Third right-click on the drive letter assigned for smb share, and select "keep
off-line ..."
 (or something like that because I use a French version)

I must accept that the second point is not necessary as you can synchronize
without it...
but it's easier for users.

A very important point is to see that users WANTS to work in the same directory
(even if on-line or off-line)

Unfortunately I can't say you where are stored datas... the only thing I know is
that "it works" !

What should you do...
make an hidden directory where synchronized datas are stored
 (where ? in user home ? in a special group home ? because 2 users can have
common shares... I fact I don't know...)
make a symbolic link to this directory when off-line
make a symbolic link (same name) to the server when on-line

the choice between the 2 versions of symbolic link to make will be done when
refreshing nautilus (and so when opening).

But this should also works for other applications, so a daemon is maybe needed...
rsync should be usefull too

Regards

sorry I forget to say that I have a message box for
recurse update or not
with a directory containing sub directories

Hello,

Do you still "NEEDINFO" ?
Do you have any problem with this feature ?

Regards

no need for extra details, reopening this. BTW this is an upstream feature, and
I think
it'll not happen soon, there is a lot to do before that. I'm not even sure to
know how
this can work (what happen when you connect the server if you have changed the
datas
on the local copy and the datas have changed on the server too ? do you just
trash the local
changes ?)

Hello,

In fact, the latest modified datas are stored (that's a good thing)
I know there is many things to do (or at least I can understand it)
but synchronizing datas is important for security.
Using remote-datas (on a Samba server) as if they were locally stored is
important too.
http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/show_bug.cgi?id=3070
and not only for OOo files

Regards

(In reply to comment #6)
> Hello,
>
> In fact, the latest modified datas are stored (that's a good thing)

so if you make changes offline and then connect to the server which have new changes
your modifications are destroyed ?

> so if you make changes offline and then connect to the server which have new
changes
> your modifications are destroyed ?

Sorry, but I'm not sure about it...
Modifications should be destroyed.
But...
Synchronization could warm in such a case.

In fact I think this feature (warm or not) should be chosen by user (or
administrator).

The problem is not to do as Windows do... it's to do as user wants ;-)

Hello,

I think you should have a look at

rsync
http://samba.anu.edu.au/rsync/

unison
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

In fact in believe that unison is better as it's contrarely to rsync bidirectional
(rsync seems to be unidirectional)

Hoping it helps you...

Regards

you can mount smb share with the smbfs module. but this won't synchronise the
share, just

I don't know if this feature works now

but you could have a look at this google summer of code project

http://tsyncd.sourceforge.net/

Hi all,
This bug is idle for almost a year. Has any action been taken (upstream bugs etc?).
If so can the bug be updated?
Thanks

No change and I don't expect nautilus will get a such feature soon, there is lot to do and that one is probably a low priority power user feature request

In fact I think the problem of synchronizing Samba share MUST be thinked with in the mind the problem of mounting Samba share for a non root user.

A non root user should be able of using the interface to browse Samba share (using smb:/ links) and to mount it in the sytem (for any user !!! ... so it deals with privilege escalade) and to synchronise. He also should also be able to unmount it.

Unfortunately I haven't enouth knowledges about programming for this.

But I suggest having a look at Mac OS X about mounting Samba share (it can also mount iso file using the same way)

ASFAIK iFolder provides the requested features and integrates well into nautilus.

I agree that this requires some more thinking, and if it was to be done within nautilus, this should get discussed with the nautilus upstream developers, as it will be a tough piece of work. It's nothing that can be described and fixed as a 'bug'.