autosync

A daemon script that continuously pulls or pushes files between a remote server and local directories using rsync over SSH.

Features

• Continuous Sync: Loops indefinitely based on a configurable interval.
• Modular Configuration: Support for global defaults and per-host property files.
• Dependency Checks: Verifies rsync and ssh are installed locally and on the remote host.
• Smart Excludes: Supports global, host-specific, and job-specific exclude files.
• Single Instance Protection: Uses a PID file to prevent multiple instances from running.
• SSH Config Friendly: Works seamlessly with ~/.ssh/config aliases.

Setup

1. Initial Run: Run the script to check for missing dependencies and global files:

   ./autosync.sh

2. Configuration:
   • Copy global.properties.template to global.properties and edit your defaults.
   • Copy autosync.excludes.template to autosync.excludes for global rsync filters.
3. Add Hosts: Place .properties files in the configs/ directory.

Running as a Systemd User Service (Recommended)

You can run autosync as a background service managed by systemd for your specific user. This ensures it starts automatically on login and restarts if it fails.

1. Install the service:

   ./autosync.sh --setup-service

2. Start the service:

   systemctl --user start autosync.service

3. Management Commands:
   • View Status: systemctl --user status autosync.service
   • View Logs: journalctl --user -u autosync.service -f
   • Stop Service: systemctl --user stop autosync.service

Running as a Daemon (Crontab)

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Modular Config Structure

1. Global Properties (global.properties)

Set global defaults for connections and logging:

• log_level: Set to error (default) or information for more detailed logs.
• log_max_size_kb: Max size of the log file before rotation.
• log_backups: Number of rotated backups to keep.

2. Host Properties (configs/*.properties)

Define host-specific settings or sync jobs. Every .properties file in configs/ is loaded.

description="Production Web Server"
remote_ip="web01"
remote_user="deploy"

# Sync jobs: "direction,host_alias,local_path,remote_path,exclude_file,options"
synced_folder1="pull,,/var/www/html,/var/www/html,,delete"

2. Host-Specific Excludes

If a file named hostname.exclude exists in configs/ (where hostname matches the .properties filename), it is automatically applied to all jobs for that host.

3. SSH Configuration

The script supports .ssh/config. If you leave ssh_key and remote_port empty, it will use your system defaults for the given remote_ip.

Requirements

• Local: rsync, ssh
• Remote: rsync must be installed on the target machine.

Logs & Management

• Logs: logs/autosync.log (stdout) and logs/autosync.err (rsync errors).
• PID File: logs/autosync.pid ensures only one instance runs.
• Stop the daemon: kill $(cat logs/autosync.pid)