[Owncloud] sync files with 2 sync clients

Fri Nov 9 09:51:30 UTC 2012

On 08.11.2012 22:52, Dennis wrote:
Gents,

> i couldn`t agree more.
> I am a owncloud observer since the early releases and i was trying
> desperately to replace teamdrive with owncloud.
> Unfortunately its not useable in a production environment at least in my
> opinion.
> Synchronising not to mention team collaborative work isn`t a scenario
> owncloud can handle at the moment.
>
> I really hope the devs can get there, oc is without a doubt very promising.
> If i may give a modest advice its that you guys shouldn`t focus on new
> features but instead make owncloud more stable
> and focus on the reliable function of its core features.
Thanks for your kind hints here. I tend to agree, but please also see 
this: Before you can stabilize a feature set you actually need it, and 
for a sync client I'd say that the ability to sync files is a basic set. 
We are there now I'd say and now we have to work to stabilize that in 
several regards.

But please also understand that we're not a 50 headed development 
department operating after a huge master plan. And many of the problems 
we see are complex and, as one said in this thread, difficult to 
reproduce etc.

That means that we need you: You can help! Try to setup scenarios, test, 
and try to describe exactly what you experience. Try to analyze what 
happens and discuss your results. We see and read that, because we 
really would love to get rid of all that problems and work on that every 
day :)

But let me add on a personal note: Try to operate from the (code-) base 
that we have today. It does not help to say "If XY was completely 
different, it would work better." but changing XY would mean another two 
years work. Software in general and FOSS in particular improves on small 
steps which are doable and realistic. These are often neglected and 
people more like the "big changes".

regards,

Klaas

>
> Am 08.11.2012 21:26, schrieb Philippe Froidevaux:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'll try to reply, because I also have a big issue here, too much
>> problems for a single bug repport :P
>>
>> The documentation says : "First it is important to recall what syncing
>> is. Syncing tries to keep the files on both repositories the same.
>> That means if a file is added to one repository it is going to be
>> copied to the other repository. If a file is changed on one
>> repository, the change is propagated to the other repository. And
>> also, if a file is deleted on one side, it is deleted on the other. As
>> a matter of fact, in ownCloud syncing we do not have a typical
>> client/server system where the server is always master."
>>
>> Thus in theory, it should works as you describe.
>>
>> In practice, it won't. I have tried same simple use case and most of
>> them break (Note : I test mostly larges files, more than 200 Mb, but
>> let far enough time to complete a download - or a removing...). For
>> example :
>> - I put some files on the client, they sync on the server. But after
>> multiple client reboot, I saw multiple "conflict" files (the files
>> haven't changed at all)
>> - I put some files on the client, they sync on the server. If I remove
>> them on the client, they stay on the server.
>> - I put some files on the client, they sync on the server. If I remove
>> them on the server, they stay on the client.
>> - I put some files on the client, they sync on the server. On a second
>> client, they don't appear anywhere.
>>
>> This, and some design choices, make the client almost unusable. It's
>> only ok to sync some file from a client to a server. But even for this
>> task :
>> - the client sync the file given the file's date, and ignore the file
>> hash. So it seems it will sync if just the date has changed
>> - the client sync/upload the file even if the file already exists
>> elsewhere on the server (a simple hash database would avoid this, and
>> use a copy instead of downloading/uploading a whole file)
>> - the client seems to scan the whole directory every x seconds, thus
>> take a lot of CPU/disc ressource. It's unusable if you have, for
>> example, 20'000 photos :D . Syncing only the changed files based of
>> access history would avoid this
>>
>> Etc. etc. :D
>>
>> It seems to me there is a lot of (re)design work to do here, before
>> having a Dropbox-like storage cloud. The OwnCloud client is NOT ready
>> for any serious usage for now. Even for just sharing files with
>> friends, the multiple "conflicts" files are quiet odd :p
>>
>>
>> <off-topic, judgement> OwnCloud is a very great tool, and very
>> promising. A lot of great job has been done. But it certainly need to
>> focus on stabilising the key features before adding new
>> funtionnalities. </offtopic>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Philippe
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> > Date: Wed, 7 Nov 2012 13:43:59 +0100
>> > From: sat at dispromedia.com
>> > To: owncloud at kde.org
>> > Subject: [Owncloud] sync files with 2 sync clients
>> >
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > I'm testing the last Sync client for windows with the last release of
>> > owncloud 4.5.1a, and I've got one question:
>> > The case is that I've got 2 laptops, and I want to sync the same
>> folders
>> > and files in the two laptops with the same owncloud account, it's
>> possible?
>> >
>> > Testing this case, if I upload one file to my owncloud folder
>> > "synclient" account with Laptop 1 then Laptop 2 don't sync this file
>> > (Laptop 2 don't download files uploaded with Laptop 1)
>> >
>> > Thanks and sorry for my english
>> > Congratulations for all your work, Owncloud works great!! ;-)
>> > Xavier
>> > --
>> >
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>> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/owncloud
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>>
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