A really crude alternative to bittorrent where file transfer is done by physical devices.
The idea is that two parties can meet, exchange external drives and share files with each other on those drives, reliably and without any need for intermediate networking.
# sync with history
bitsplat -s /path/to/media -t /path/to/removable/drive/media
# sync with history and archiving of files at the target which have a corresponding .t file
# -> this is how the mede8er players mark files as watched
# -> other 'watched marker' mechanisms can be observed, with a little code, when the need arises
bitsplat -s /path/to/media -t /path/to/removable/drive/media -a /path/to/archive/media
There are many more options; read the help for more info:
$ bitsplat --help
BitSplat
A simple file synchroniser aimed at media sync
--keep-stale, -k
Keep stale files (ie files removed from source and still at the target
--no-resume
Disable resume
The default is to resume from the current target byte offset if less than
the source size
--resume-check-bytes
How many bytes to check at the end of a partial file when considering resu
me
-a, --archive
Path / URI to use for archiving
-h, --history-db
Override path to history database
The default location for the database is at the root of the target
-m, --mode
Set the sync mode to one of: All or Opt-In (case-insensitive)
All synchronises everything
OptIn only synchronises folders which already exist or have been recorded
in the history database
-n, --no-history
Disables the history database
If you don't need to have a sparse target, you can disable to history data
base to fall back on simpler synchronisation: what's at the source must en
d up at the target
-q, --quiet
Produces less output, good for non-interactive scripts
-r, --retries
Retry failed synchronisations at most this many times
-s, --source
Path / URI to use for source
-t, --target
Path / URI to use for target
Whilst the examples above display how bitsplat is used under Linux, there are binaries available for
Linux, Windows and OSX (the latter is untested -- feedback welcome). The windows binary can be obtained
from scoop too:
scoop bucket add fluffynuts https://github.com/fluffynuts/scoop-bucket
scoop install bitsplat
Functionally, it replaces medesync, providing the same workflow (sync & archive), as well as providing other flows like:
- opt-in sync
- items found in history but not at the target are not re-synced, facilitating smaller, portable media to be used to carry partial synchronisations from a source
Internally, concepts are abstracted to facilitate replacement:
- file systems
- methods for determining if source material should be archived