synclinks

2013-06-03 00:03 UTC
  • Xyne

Metadata

Description:

A tool that synchronizes hierarchies of symlinks.

Latest Version:

2013

Architecture:
  • i686
  • x86_64

Arch Repositories:
  • [xyne-i686]
  • [xyne-x86_64]

AUR ID:

57336

Arch Forum ID:

137161

Tags:

About

synclinks is a tool for synchronizing a hierarchy of symlinks. It's a bit like a limited version of rsync that creates synclinks instead of copying the files.

Examples

Basic

synclinks foo bar

This will traverse the directory "foo" and create a symlink at the same relative path in "bar" for every file that it finds. For example, given "foo" with

foo/bar.txt
foo/baz/whatever.txt

synlinks will create

bar/bar.txt -> foo/bar.txt
bar/baz/whatever.txt -> foo/baz/whatever.txt

Basic with update option.

synclinks -u foo bar

The update option will make synclinks traverse "bar" first and copy any files in bar to "foo". It will then continue as above. This ensures that any files created in "bar" (i.e. completely new files or replaced symlinks) will be moved to "foo", so that "foo" continues to contain all of the real files.

File lists

File lists are where the real functionality of synclinks lies. A file list is a plaintext file with a relative path on each line, for example:

a.txt
b.txt
d.txt
img

Running

synclinks -f /path/to/file foo bar

would then create

bar/a.txt -> foo/a.txt
bar/b.txt -> foo/b.txt
bar/d.txt -> foo/d.txt
bar/img -> foo/img

In this case, if "foo" contains e.g. c.txt, it will not be symlinked in "bar". This allows you to expose a subset of the files in "foo". Furthermore, the paths in the file list may be directories (e.g. "img" in this case) and they do not need to exist when synlinks is run.1

Including the upgrade option when using a file list will move both files and directories back to the source directory.

What is this good for?

I wrote this as part of a solution to manage clutter in my home directory. Some applications create files that I want to keep but most just clutter up my home directory with crap. With synclinks, I can keep the files that I want in a given location and then use filelists to symlink those into a temporary home directory in which I run applications. When I'm done, I use the update option to copy back any changes in my chosen files to the source files that I have in a different directory. After that I can just discard the entire temporary home directory.

I'm sure that there are other uses for this though.

Help Message

$ synclinks --help

Usage: synclinks [OPTION...] <source dir> <dest dir>
Create symlinks in <dest dir> to paths in <source dir>. The paths may be
specified as relative paths to <source dir> in a file list list with the -f
option, otherwise the entire directory hierarchy is mirrored and all
non-directory items are symlinked.

  -a                         Always create links even when the target does not
                             exist. This is only useful for links that will
                             point to files, because the target file will be
                             created when writing to the link. If you use this
                             option when linking directories, then make sure
                             that empty directories are created in <source dir>
                             before using the links in <dest dir>. Otherwise,
                             skip this option and let your applications create
                             directories in <dest dir>, then run synclinks with
                             the update option to copy them to <source dir>
                             before linking them.
  -b <backup dir>            Set a backup directory path for updated files.
                             File name extensions will be added to indicate the
                             original location of the files. If this path is
                             not set then the files will be saved in their
                             original directory. This currently only works with
                             file lists.
  -d                         Dry run. Print messages without creating or
                             removing any files. This currently only works with
                             file lists.
  -f <file list>             Read paths from <file list>. This is the main
                             functionality of synclinks. <file list> is a
                             plaintext file with paths on separate lines. Each
                             path is a relative path to a file or directory in
                             <source dir> and will be used to create a
                             corresponding symlink in <dest dir>. For example,
                             the line "foo" will create a symlink at "<dest
                             dir>/foo" that points to "<source dir>/foo".
  -u                         Update files in <source dir> to match files in
                             <dest dir>. This is useful if new files have been
                             added to the file list or if an application has
                             removed a symlink and created a regular file in
                             <dest dir>. This currently only works with file
                             lists.
  -v                         Verbose mode. This currently only works with file
                             lists.
  -?, --help                 Give this help list
      --usage                Give a short usage message
  -V, --version              Print program version

CHANGELOG

2012-03-28

  • By default symlinks to missing paths are no longer created. This should avoid problems with directories.
  • A new option, -a, has been added to emulate the previous behavior.

2012-06-04

  • Fixed bug that required two runs to created missing directories.

TODO

TODO

  • create daemon mode using inotify events (see maown)

  1. You should create directories first though so that the symlinks will work as expected. Writing to a symlink that points to a missing file will create the file. Trying to create files in a missing directory through a symlink will not create the directory.↩

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