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Synchronisation tools

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Eóin:
I thought I’d start up a discussion on available Synchronisation tools as I haven’t been able to find one which I’m happy with.

I’d better explain what I’m looking for first, I want a neat way to backup my programming projects, my ideal tool would perform incremental backups with a possibility to rollback.

Currently I use Synchronize It! It’s nice and has a number of important features which I’m looking for; with a combination of excluding certain folder names and filetypes I can get it to ignore binary files and just back up the source code for example. It doesn’t do incremental backups so currently I just backup to an empty folder which I date, 7z and copy into my backup folders.

Another possibility I’ve considered is running a subversion server on the backup computer at home, this would do the incremental backups I’d like but the current GUIs for subversion leave a lot to be desired. I use RapidSVN for other purposes but it doesn’t feel slick and certainly isn’t intuitive. I’m not prepared to install TortiseSVN as I just don’t want something which integrates with the shell. I reserve that privilege only for apps I use very VERY frequently. More importantly getting it to ignore the binary files is tedious and I don’t have the space to back up gigs of dll and import libraries (thank you Boost :) ).

I should also point out the Microsoft have release a free SyncToy, unfortunately its very simplistic with none of the advanced features I’m looking for.

Maybe people might like to share their own experiences and post links to any little gems they’ve found.

f0dder:
There's WinMerge and Beyond Compare

Getting tortoise to ignore binaries isn't too bad, there's global ignore-filters :)

Eóin:
Thanks for the links, that Beyond Compare was on discount on bits du jour just recently. Apps that go down into the file level and check for differences are almost too powerful. I happy enough to simply backup a whole new file it there is even just a small change, what I want to avoid is re-backing up a whole directory when only a single file has changed.

What I'd like is an app which could take a daily snapshot of a folder and it subfolders say so that I could go back to previous backups if a recent one was accidently corrupted or for whatever reason I may need to go back.

f0dder:
BC has also been on discount here a couple of times, as well as been offered as a prize. And yeah, after reading your post more thoroughly it seems those are a bit overkill :)

Perhaps give http://www.diginaut.com/shareware/fw/ a try - I think that's what one of the admins from another Danish museum uses.

EDIT: sorry, no, he uses http://peccatte.karefil.com/software/Idem/idemhelpeng.htm

mouser:
Eóin,
we defininitely need to do a proper review of incremental versioned backup tools.

for a review that touches on these, see:
https://www.donationcoder.com/Reviews/Archive/BackUpGuide/index.html

and the discussion related to that review:
https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=29.0

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