advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Xebar Saram]

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Hi all

I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
(yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as it
keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main machine
etc etc..

I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's, Os's,
devices (android etc)..

Best

Itai

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Brian van den Broek]

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On Jul 1, 2013 8:26 AM, "Xebar Saram" <zeltakc@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi all
>
> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
(yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as it
keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main machine
etc etc..
>
> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
Os's, devices (android etc)..
>
> Best
>
> Itai

Hi,

For keeping org files in sync between real computers, version control seems
to me the obvious way to go. It gets you sync and history.

There is perhaps a bit of a learning curve, but time spent learning widely
useful tools is time well spent :-)

bzr and hg are (superficially?) easier and git is pretty dominant.

For Android, mobile org push to android has worked for me (syncing over SD
rather than the cloud or WebDAV). Pulling from Android hasn't been reliable
enough for me to use it.

HTH,

Brian vdB

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Tomas Grigera]

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On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Brian van den Broek <
brian.van.den.broek@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Jul 1, 2013 8:26 AM, "Xebar Saram" <zeltakc@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi all
> >
> > I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as it
> keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main machine
> etc etc..
> >
>
> > I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
> Os's, devices (android etc)..
> >
> > Best
> >
> > Itai
>
> Hi,
>
> For keeping org files in sync between real computers, version control
> seems to me the obvious way to go. It gets you sync and history.
>
> There is perhaps a bit of a learning curve, but time spent learning widely
> useful tools is time well spent :-)
>
> bzr and hg are (superficially?) easier and git is pretty dominant.
>
> For Android, mobile org push to android has worked for me (syncing over SD
> rather than the cloud or WebDAV). Pulling from Android hasn't been reliable
> enough for me to use it.
>
> HTH,
>
> Brian vdB
>
Hi,

To me, a rather reliable way (without version control) has been unison.
 Easy to set up and learn, fast.  Only problem is that it doesn't deal well
(actually, at all) with merges (i.e. a file that has been modified in both
computers).

But I agree with Brian that in the long run, though harder to learn, git is
a charm.

Tomas

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Ramon Diaz-Uriarte]

Hi Itai,

zeltakc@gmail.com writes:

> Hi all
>
> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as it
> keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main machine
> etc etc..
> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's, Os's,
> devices (android etc)..
>
> Best
>
> Itai


I use a combination of dropbox (between the computers ---all running Linux) and
version control, and for syncing with Android I use mobile org.


With Dropbox I've had a some "conflicted copy" issues; this is annoying (and is
the sort of thing that would have been solved much more easily with version
control) but happens very rarely. What I like about this is that my frequent
changes in org files get propagated without the need for an explicit version
control command.


However, for safety and for tracking, I run a nightly job with bazaar where I
commit all changes (this is done in only one of the machines, of course). This
has actually proven extremely useful when, by mistake, I have deleted a complete
subtree and only realized maybe a month later.

          
HTH,

R.


-- 
Ramon Diaz-Uriarte
Department of Biochemistry, Lab B-25
Facultad de Medicina 
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid 
Arzobispo Morcillo, 4
28029 Madrid
Spain

Phone: +34-91-497-2412

Email: rdiaz02@gmail.com
       ramon.diaz@iib.uam.es

http://ligarto.org/rdiaz

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Karl Voit]

* Tomas Grigera <tgrigera@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> To me, a rather reliable way (without version control) has been unison.
>  Easy to set up and learn, fast.  Only problem is that it doesn't deal well
> (actually, at all) with merges (i.e. a file that has been modified in both
> computers).

I am using Unison File Synchronizer in a cron-job[1] to sync my
Org-mode files with a 24/7-server in the cloud (my *own* server).
All computers are being synced with this server.

This works as long as I do not forget to save all and exit Emacs
before I leave/shut down/hibernate my machines. This way, I do
prevent two changes happening on different machines (sync conflict).

Unison does not offer any merge functionality. However, you can
easily use third party tools to handle merge conflicts (Emacs, vim,
...).

> But I agree with Brian that in the long run, though harder to learn, git is
> a charm.

Totally agree.

I am using gitwatch[2] to automatically commit any changes in my
org-mode files. However, I do this only on my main working machine
and ignore git information when syncing with Unison (multiple
reasons, complicated to explain).

In case you want to manage all of your Org-mode files with git (in
contrast to me), you can also choose to auto-push/pull those git
commits to other machines as well. This should even merge the most
simple conflicts without user interaction. I do not have experience
with this method by myself. There are several interesting solution
candidates out there: Sparkle Share and several script on github.

HTH

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crond
  2. https://github.com/nevik/gitwatch
-- 
mail|git|SVN|photos|postings|SMS|phonecalls|RSS|CSV|XML to Org-mode:
       > get Memacs from https://github.com/novoid/Memacs <

https://github.com/novoid/extract_pdf_annotations_to_orgmode + more on github

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Alan Schmitt]

devnull@Karl-Voit.at writes:

> Unison does not offer any merge functionality. However, you can
> easily use third party tools to handle merge conflicts (Emacs, vim,
> ...).

(Disclaimer, I participate in Unison's development). Just to clarify
what I think Karl is saying: one can plug in external tools to handle
merge into unison, these tools can be specialized depending on the file
name (for instance the file extension) or the file path. Getting the
correct configuration line may be tricky, but I, or people on the
unison-users mailing list, are ready to help.

Alan

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Karl Voit]

* Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> wrote:
> devnull@Karl-Voit.at writes:
>
>> Unison does not offer any merge functionality. However, you can
>> easily use third party tools to handle merge conflicts (Emacs, vim,
>> ...).
>
> (Disclaimer, I participate in Unison's development). 

Jay! \o/

> Just to clarify what I think Karl is saying: one can plug in
> external tools to handle merge into unison, these tools can be
> specialized depending on the file name (for instance the file
> extension) or the file path. Getting the correct configuration
> line may be tricky, but I, or people on the unison-users mailing
> list, are ready to help.

Of course. Thanks for clarifying!

Alan, how about a short how-to on Worg about Unison and Org-mode
methods?

-- 
mail|git|SVN|photos|postings|SMS|phonecalls|RSS|CSV|XML to Org-mode:
       > get Memacs from https://github.com/novoid/Memacs <

https://github.com/novoid/extract_pdf_annotations_to_orgmode + more on github

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Rasmus]

Hi,

Nice discussion.  I hope it makes it into a Worg page eventually :)

Karl Voit <devnull@Karl-Voit.at> writes:
> * Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> wrote:
>> Just to clarify what I think Karl is saying: one can plug in
>> external tools to handle merge into unison, these tools can be
>> specialized depending on the file name (for instance the file
>> extension) or the file path. Getting the correct configuration
>> line may be tricky, but I, or people on the unison-users mailing
>> list, are ready to help.
>
> Of course. Thanks for clarifying!
>
> Alan, how about a short how-to on Worg about Unison and Org-mode
> methods?

Yeah, I'd like that too.  

Another option is Git Annex.  In my experience, it takes some effort
to get used to it, but perhaps less so if you're used to git.  One can
configure it to use regular git for e.g. text files.  It's build with
Haskell (and success of building it is more or less random), but the
author now provides binary packages for 32 and 64 bits.

It comes with a "webapp", which provides a minimalistic gui and
handles registration of new files etc.

And there's of course Bittorrent Sync, but its source has yet to be
released, but this is true for the dropbox as well.

–Rasmus

-- 
This is the kind of tedious nonsense up with which I will not put

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Myles English]

Hi,

Rasmus writes:

> Another option is Git Annex.  In my experience, it takes some effort
> to get used to it, but perhaps less so if you're used to git.  One can
> configure it to use regular git for e.g. text files.  It's build with
> Haskell (and success of building it is more or less random), but the
> author now provides binary packages for 32 and 64 bits.

And git-annex is supported by the org attachment features, the author of
git-annex, Joey Hess, has also written a tool called 'mr'.

I sync between computers on a LAN and keep my org files in a git repo,
and the attachment directory, named 'data' by default, is another git
repo.  To sync both of these repos at the same time, they are collected
together in a .mrconfig file like this:


[DEFAULT]
lib =
        syncOrg() {
                git commit -a -m update || true
                git pull pi master
                git push pi master
        }
[org]
update = syncOrg

[org/data]
update = syncOrg

other git repos can be added of course.  These pull and push to/from a
bare repos on a RaspberryPi that is always on.

There are some things that I wish worked better and I feel could be
improved:

1) when you add a repo (e.g. adding an attachment to an attachment will
result in a nested repo because an attachment isn't self-aware) the
corresponding bare repo must be added to the .mrconfig and the RaspPI.

2) git log shows lots of commit messages in the master branch that say

"Merge branch 'master' of pi:org/etc"

or

"update"

and so "Made some really important changes" becomes buried in the log.
I have a feeling that this could be fixed by using a separate branch for
syncing, but there would still be a merge commit message.

Myles

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Suvayu Ali]

Hello,

On Mon, Jul 01, 2013 at 01:25:26PM -0300, Tomas Grigera wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Brian van den Broek <
> brian.van.den.broek@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > bzr and hg are (superficially?) easier and git is pretty dominant.

 [...chomp...chomp...chomp...]

> But I agree with Brian that in the long run, though harder to learn, git is
> a charm.

A comment about using git:

I have noticed that git *always* conflicts with TODO state changes.  It
seems changes to a headline is not easy to resolve.  This is where the
Org merge tool would be perfect.  There was a GSoC project[1], but I
have not tested the end result.  As far as I recall, although
functional, it was not complete.

Please do not take this as a vote against using git, I use it myself and
I'm a big git enthusiast (as many on the list know by now :-p).

Cheers,


Footnotes:

[1] <http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/git-merge-tool/>

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Xebar Saram]

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Wow

thx guys, so many great tips ill slowly start looking into them. as i said
i am a neewb (and not to technical :)).

Alan, a unison guide focused on org would be great as some of the guys
mentioned.

best to all and thx alot for the info its truly helpful

take care

-Itai


On Tue, Jul 2, 2013 at 6:17 AM, Suvayu Ali <fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello,
>
> On Mon, Jul 01, 2013 at 01:25:26PM -0300, Tomas Grigera wrote:
> > On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 1:10 PM, Brian van den Broek <
> > brian.van.den.broek@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > bzr and hg are (superficially?) easier and git is pretty dominant.
>
>  [...chomp...chomp...chomp...]
>
> > But I agree with Brian that in the long run, though harder to learn, git
> is
> > a charm.
>
> A comment about using git:
>
> I have noticed that git *always* conflicts with TODO state changes.  It
> seems changes to a headline is not easy to resolve.  This is where the
> Org merge tool would be perfect.  There was a GSoC project[1], but I
> have not tested the end result.  As far as I recall, although
> functional, it was not complete.
>
> Please do not take this as a vote against using git, I use it myself and
> I'm a big git enthusiast (as many on the list know by now :-p).
>
> Cheers,
>
>
> Footnotes:
>
> [1] <
> http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/git-merge-tool/
> >
>
> --
> Suvayu
>
> Open source is the future. It sets us free.
>
>

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Alan Schmitt]

Hello Karl,

devnull@Karl-Voit.at writes:

> Alan, how about a short how-to on Worg about Unison and Org-mode
> methods?

Well, what would be there? If there is (and there may be) an external
tool that knows how to merge org files (it can be a 3-way merge, if it
makes things simpler), I could try to devise the magical incantation to
use it.

Alan

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Rasmus]

Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> writes:

>> Alan, how about a short how-to on Worg about Unison and Org-mode
>> methods?
>
> Well, what would be there? If there is (and there may be) an external
> tool that knows how to merge org files (it can be a 3-way merge, if it
> makes things simpler), I could try to devise the magical incantation to
> use it.

There's the GSOC project from last year:

     http://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-merge-driver.git

Whether it is complete or abandoned I don't know.  Here's the Worg
page

      http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/git-merge-tool/index.html

–Rasmus

-- 
If you can mix business and politics wonderful things can happen!

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Alan Schmitt]

rasmus@gmx.us writes:

> Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> writes:
>
>>> Alan, how about a short how-to on Worg about Unison and Org-mode
>>> methods?
>>
>> Well, what would be there? If there is (and there may be) an external
>> tool that knows how to merge org files (it can be a 3-way merge, if it
>> makes things simpler), I could try to devise the magical incantation to
>> use it.
>
> There's the GSOC project from last year:
>
>      http://orgmode.org/cgit.cgi/org-merge-driver.git
>
> Whether it is complete or abandoned I don't know.  Here's the Worg
> page
>
>       http://orgmode.org/worg/org-contrib/gsoc2012/student-projects/git-merge-tool/index.html

This looks nice. Has anyone tried it?

If someone can show me how to launch ediff from the command line, I can
explain how to set up Unison for it (I found this old question
http://superuser.com/questions/81958/how-to-make-emacsclient-wait-when-using-the-eval-option
but I find the busy waiting very ugly; maybe there is a better
solution).

Alan

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Brett Viren]

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Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> writes:

> Well, what would be there? If there is (and there may be) an external
> tool that knows how to merge org files (it can be a 3-way merge, if it
> makes things simpler), I could try to devise the magical incantation to
> use it.

It is not org-specific, but meld [1] is a Free and capable GUI merge
tool.  It can be used directly or can be invoked by git to resolve merge
conflicts.


-Brett.

http://meldmerge.org/

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[David Engster]

Suvayu Ali writes:
> I have noticed that git *always* conflicts with TODO state changes.  It
> seems changes to a headline is not easy to resolve.

You mean you change state in a file and git fails to merge this on the
other side, although you didn't change the same line there? I've never
seen such a spurious merge conflict with my Org files. Could you give an
example? It might be that simply switching to another diff.algorithm and
maybe also increasing diff.context would get rid of this.

-David

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Suvayu Ali]

On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 04:27:27PM +0200, Alan Schmitt wrote:
> 
> If someone can show me how to launch ediff from the command line, I can
> explain how to set up Unison for it (I found this old question
> http://superuser.com/questions/81958/how-to-make-emacsclient-wait-when-using-the-eval-option
> but I find the busy waiting very ugly; maybe there is a better
> solution).

I presume the assumption is you want emacsclient to open the files in
whatever GUI frame you have already open.  Another alternative would be
to ask emacsclient to create a new frame (-c for GUI, -nw for text
terminal); in that case it does not return immediately.

Hope that helps,

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi David,

On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 05:59:36PM +0200, David Engster wrote:
> Suvayu Ali writes:
> > I have noticed that git *always* conflicts with TODO state changes.  It
> > seems changes to a headline is not easy to resolve.
> 
> You mean you change state in a file and git fails to merge this on the
> other side, although you didn't change the same line there? I've never
> seen such a spurious merge conflict with my Org files. Could you give an
> example? It might be that simply switching to another diff.algorithm and
> maybe also increasing diff.context would get rid of this.

Yes, exactly that.  I have stopped using multiple machines for a year
now, so I do not have an example at the moment.  My history is pretty
linear these days :).  If I can find the time, I will try work up an
example, but that is a big if.

That said, I think you might be right.  Possibly it could be resolved by
just changing the algorithm, I don't know why I never tried that though.

Cheers,

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[David Engster]

Suvayu Ali writes:
> That said, I think you might be right.  Possibly it could be resolved by
> just changing the algorithm, I don't know why I never tried that though.

You might want to try setting diff.algorithm to 'patience' and maybe
also raise diff.context to something like 6 or so if that doesn't solve
your problem. It very much depends on how your Org files look.

-David

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Suvayu Ali]

On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 06:11:14PM +0200, David Engster wrote:
> Suvayu Ali writes:
> > That said, I think you might be right.  Possibly it could be resolved by
> > just changing the algorithm, I don't know why I never tried that though.
> 
> You might want to try setting diff.algorithm to 'patience' and maybe
> also raise diff.context to something like 6 or so if that doesn't solve
> your problem. It very much depends on how your Org files look.

Is diff.algorithm new?  I could not find it in the manpage on my laptop
(git version 1.8.1.4).  However I do see it on the online docs[1].  In
any case, I have set the variables.  Next time I merge Org files, I get
to test it!

Thanks a lot David,


Footnotes:

[1] <http://git-scm.com/docs/git-diff>

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Juan G.]

Xebar Saram <zeltakc <at> gmail.com> writes:

> Alan, a unison guide focused on org would be great as some of the guys
mentioned.

As an example, I use the following ~/.unison/Org.prf file to sync files
between Org folders on a Debian Linux laptop and an Android phone:

# Unison preferences
label = Org-mode
root = /home/shared/Org
root = /media/8A07-A343/Org
times = true
perms = 0o1702
prefer = newer
ignore = Name {.directory}

Of course the two Linux and Android roots are just an example.

The line "perms = 0o1702" solved some permission problems with the card in
the Android phone.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Simon Thum]

Hi,

I use git-sync against my own server, and replicate mobileOrg to a 
webdav directory from there.

   https://github.com/simonthum/git-sync

git-sync is intended for people who are git-savy, though.

Cheers,

Simon

On 07/01/2013 02:06 PM, Xebar Saram wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as
> it keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main
> machine etc etc..
>
> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
> Os's, devices (android etc)..
>
> Best
>
> Itai

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Samuel Loury]

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Hi,
Xebar Saram <zeltakc@gmail.com> writes:

> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's, Os's,
> devices (android etc)..

There have been lot's of awesome solutions provided in this thread. Mine
is quite similar but I think it is worth describing it anyway.

I use git (a hand made script¹) to synchronize my personal files (not
only the org files) with a usb key. In fact, into the key, there is only
a encrypted version (via encfs) of a git bare repository. The data are
encrypted in case someone get access to my key.

I am now used to launch the script first thing in the morning, just
after plugging the key, and just before I unplug it.

The script has been in use for 2 years now and works quite well.

The problem with synchronizing with git is that the history might grow
out of control after some time. My workaround for the time being (it is
still being thought about) is to "cut" the repository. The idea is that
I only need most recent history, not the full one. My current
implementation² uses git clone --depth and results in a shallow
repository.  This implementation really sucks because shallow
repositories are really limited. Any better idea would be welcome.

To get access to my org files from android, I tested two years ago
mobile org without success. Recently, I exported my errand tasks³ as a
ics file that I looked via a home made python script (thanks to sl4a⁴)
with a webview⁵ graphical interface. Nonetheless, I lost the python
script (CyanogenMod pawwwwaaa) and I am too lazy to rewrite it. Then I
guess I will give mobile org another chance.

Best

¹ https://github.com/Konubinix/Devel/blob/master/bin/konix_perso-sync.sh
² https://github.com/Konubinix/Devel/blob/master/bin/konix_perso-shorten.sh
³ https://github.com/Konubinix/Devel/blob/master/config/elfiles/config/after-loads/KONIX_AL-org.el#L1909
⁴ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/
⁵ http://code.google.com/p/android-scripting/wiki/ApiReference#webViewShow

-- 
Konubinix
GPG Key    : 7439106A
Fingerprint: 5993 BE7A DA65 E2D9 06CE  5C36 75D2 3CED 7439 106A

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[G. Martin Butz]

Hi Itai,

you have been given a lot of detailed advice, so I do not know, if my 
contribution will add anything.

I have made good experiences with a combination of unison and git. I 
currently synchonise my netbook and my laptop; it is a rather simple and 
homebrew setup but it works for my pupose.

I wrote a blog entry about the issue [1], but it's in German. If you 
interested I can give further information in English.

For my android phone and org I do not use dropbox, because I do not want 
my org-files on a public server. I do not have the newest android 
version so I can not easily encrypt the content. I am a bit ancious to 
put all my org content on my phone (in case of loss), so I export one 
org-file with important dates via USB to have the dates in the phone's 
calendar.

Thanks
Martin

[1] 
<http://www.mkblog.org/2011/12/zwei-rechner-daten-verloren-dokumente-fehlen/>

Am 01.07.2013 14:06, schrieb Xebar Saram:
> Hi all
>
> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as it
> keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main machine
> etc etc..
>
> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's, Os's,
> devices (android etc)..
>
> Best
>
> Itai
>


-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
| G. Martin Butz | m.butz@hfk-bremen.de | www.mkblog.org |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Nick Dokos]

"G. Martin Butz" <mb@mkblog.org> writes:

> I wrote a blog entry about the issue [1], but it's in German. If you
> interested I can give further information in English.
>

The Chromium browser did an OK job of translating it: I think the
translation is rough but readable.

>
> [1]
> <http://www.mkblog.org/2011/12/zwei-rechner-daten-verloren-dokumente-fehlen/>
>

-- 
Nick

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Julien Cubizolles]

Alan Schmitt <alan.schmitt@polytechnique.org> writes:

> devnull@Karl-Voit.at writes:
>
>> Unison does not offer any merge functionality. However, you can
>> easily use third party tools to handle merge conflicts (Emacs, vim,
>> ...).
>
> (Disclaimer, I participate in Unison's development). Just to clarify
> what I think Karl is saying: one can plug in external tools to handle
> merge into unison, these tools can be specialized depending on the file
> name (for instance the file extension) or the file path. Getting the
> correct configuration line may be tricky, but I, or people on the
> unison-users mailing list, are ready to help.


For me, this line in unison configuration file

merge = Name {,.}* -> emacs --eval '(ediff-merge-files "CURRENT1" "CURRENT2" nil "NEW")'

opens a new emacs frame with ediff for merging. You should change the
"Name {,.}$" part though (I should too...) to only use this on the files
you want to.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Alan Schmitt]

fatkasuvayu+linux@gmail.com writes:

> On Tue, Jul 02, 2013 at 04:27:27PM +0200, Alan Schmitt wrote:
>> 
>> If someone can show me how to launch ediff from the command line, I can
>> explain how to set up Unison for it (I found this old question
>> http://superuser.com/questions/81958/how-to-make-emacsclient-wait-when-using-the-eval-option
>> but I find the busy waiting very ugly; maybe there is a better
>> solution).
>
> I presume the assumption is you want emacsclient to open the files in
> whatever GUI frame you have already open.  Another alternative would be
> to ask emacsclient to create a new frame (-c for GUI, -nw for text
> terminal); in that case it does not return immediately.

Thank you for the suggestion,

Alan

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Ian Barton]

On 01/07/13 13:06, Xebar Saram wrote:
> Hi all
>
> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as
> it keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main
> machine etc etc..
>
> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
> Os's, devices (android etc)..
>

I used to use Dropbox and git. However, as you have found I often got 
"Conflicted Files". This is a particular problem if it happens in your 
.git folder, because it can lead to a corrupt git repo. Even though I 
have a remote git repo, this still lead to lots of wasted time trying to 
sort out the mess.

Recently I have been using BitTorrent Sync from 
http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html So far this works 
really well. If you are using Linux you need to do a bit of fiddling to 
get it to run as your local user, as it doesn't preserve file 
permissions. So if you are running it as a daemon files at the remote 
end all get up being owned by root.

The default is for two way synchronization. However, it's easy to set up 
one way sync. This is useful for backups. If you accidentally made a 
change in your backup, you wouldn't want it pushed back to your aster 
version.

I also run a cron job on my laptop, which is my main work machine. Every 
hour this commits my org files to my git repo and pushes the changes to 
my remote on a different computer.

Ian.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Nicolas Richard]

Ian Barton <lists@wilkesley.net> writes:
> I used to use Dropbox and git. However, as you have found I often got
> "Conflicted Files". This is a particular problem if it happens in your
> .git folder, because it can lead to a corrupt git repo. Even though I
> have a remote git repo, this still lead to lots of wasted time trying
> to sort out the mess.

I use Dropbox+git with colleagues : Dropbox synchronizes the data almost
real time, whereas git tracks the changes. I commit manually when I see
meaningful changes. Wrt the .git directory, I simply ask Dropbox to
ignore it [on command line, "dropbox exclude add Dropbox/foo/bar/.git"
-- which can be done even before initializing the git repo in
Dropbox/foo/bar]

Btw I know that Dropbox has "change tracking" facilities too but I
dislike the UI (via a website). Also, I usually keep a local clone of my
"Dropbox repositories" (which are cheap with git, thanks to hard links)
that I can use to make temprorary checkout of older revisions without my
colleages getting hundreds of file "updates". For the same reason I
(almost) don't use branches in these repos, since switching branches is
not Dropbox-friendly.

-- 
Nico.

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Christopher Allan Webber]

Ian Barton writes:

> On 01/07/13 13:06, Xebar Saram wrote:
>> Hi all
>>
>> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
>> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as
>> it keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main
>> machine etc etc..
>>
>> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
>> Os's, devices (android etc)..
>>
>
> I used to use Dropbox and git. However, as you have found I often got 
> "Conflicted Files". This is a particular problem if it happens in your 
> .git folder, because it can lead to a corrupt git repo. Even though I 
> have a remote git repo, this still lead to lots of wasted time trying to 
> sort out the mess.
>
> Recently I have been using BitTorrent Sync from 
> http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html So far this works 
> really well. If you are using Linux you need to do a bit of fiddling to 
> get it to run as your local user, as it doesn't preserve file 
> permissions. So if you are running it as a daemon files at the remote 
> end all get up being owned by root.
>
> The default is for two way synchronization. However, it's easy to set up 
> one way sync. This is useful for backups. If you accidentally made a 
> change in your backup, you wouldn't want it pushed back to your aster 
> version.
>
> I also run a cron job on my laptop, which is my main work machine. Every 
> hour this commits my org files to my git repo and pushes the changes to 
> my remote on a different computer.
>
> Ian.

Have you considered using git-annex with git-annex assistant?  I'm doing
this now... it automatically syncs on each file save.  I also have it
set up so that orgmode files get checked in as if regular git files
rather than moved to the annex like:

[annex]
        # uuid and "version" keys up here
	largefiles = largerthan=100kb and not (include=*.org or include=*.org_archive or include=*.txt or include=*.tex)

This will thus commit any files < 100kb and orgmode / latex files as
just plain git files instead of moving them to the annex.

I highly, highly recommend this setup.
 - Chris

Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Xebar Saram]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 2934 bytes --]

Thx Chris

its funny you just posted this as of all the excellent responses in this
thread i was looking into git-annex as a solution. The issue is that im not
very technical (im an academic not a programmer) and its seems mighty
complicated. Also in addition git-assistant is currently isnt available for
windows (which im forced to use at work unfortunately..)
do you know of a good (simple) guide for git-annex? would you mind to
elaborate more on your complete setup?
also do you use it to sync with android?

thx alot and thank you all who sent responses, its greatly appreciated !

best

-itai


On Mon, Jul 8, 2013 at 11:53 AM, Christopher Allan Webber <
cwebber@dustycloud.org> wrote:

> Ian Barton writes:
>
> > On 01/07/13 13:06, Xebar Saram wrote:
> >> Hi all
> >>
> >> I have been using dropbox since i started using orgmode a few weeks ago
> >> (yeah im a neewb :)), which kinda works but i find it very annoying as
> >> it keeps creating conflicted copies, isnt reliable on my Linux main
> >> machine etc etc..
> >>
> >> I was wondering what you guys do for syncing org files between PC's,
> >> Os's, devices (android etc)..
> >>
> >
> > I used to use Dropbox and git. However, as you have found I often got
> > "Conflicted Files". This is a particular problem if it happens in your
> > .git folder, because it can lead to a corrupt git repo. Even though I
> > have a remote git repo, this still lead to lots of wasted time trying to
> > sort out the mess.
> >
> > Recently I have been using BitTorrent Sync from
> > http://labs.bittorrent.com/experiments/sync.html So far this works
> > really well. If you are using Linux you need to do a bit of fiddling to
> > get it to run as your local user, as it doesn't preserve file
> > permissions. So if you are running it as a daemon files at the remote
> > end all get up being owned by root.
> >
> > The default is for two way synchronization. However, it's easy to set up
> > one way sync. This is useful for backups. If you accidentally made a
> > change in your backup, you wouldn't want it pushed back to your aster
> > version.
> >
> > I also run a cron job on my laptop, which is my main work machine. Every
> > hour this commits my org files to my git repo and pushes the changes to
> > my remote on a different computer.
> >
> > Ian.
>
> Have you considered using git-annex with git-annex assistant?  I'm doing
> this now... it automatically syncs on each file save.  I also have it
> set up so that orgmode files get checked in as if regular git files
> rather than moved to the annex like:
>
> [annex]
>         # uuid and "version" keys up here
>         largefiles = largerthan=100kb and not (include=*.org or
> include=*.org_archive or include=*.txt or include=*.tex)
>
> This will thus commit any files < 100kb and orgmode / latex files as
> just plain git files instead of moving them to the annex.
>
> I highly, highly recommend this setup.
>  - Chris
>
>

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Re: advice needed: how do you guys sync org files between devices?

[Rasmus]

Xebar,

> its funny you just posted this as of all the excellent responses in this
> thread i was looking into git-annex as a solution. The issue is that im not
> very technical (im an academic not a programmer) and its seems mighty
> complicated. Also in addition git-assistant is currently isnt available for
> windows (which im forced to use at work unfortunately..)

Then, I guess you'd need to build yourself.  And I'd strongly
recommend against that.  The times I've build git annex the outcome
has been fully stochastic, depending on whether the Haskell packages
happen to fit together at that instance in time.

However, have you checked out the Windows support page?

      http://git-annex.branchable.com/todo/windows_support/ 


> do you know of a good (simple) guide for git-annex? would you mind to
> elaborate more on your complete setup?

Just use the gui (git annex webapp) and go through Joey's page.  He's providing
tutorials.

I'm still having problems with some files that it won't swallow;
because of encoding of file names, I think.

> also do you use it to sync with android?

There's android support but last I checked no fancy gui.

–Rasmus

-- 
I almost cut my hair, it happened just the other day