Version: (using KDE 4.2.90) Installed from: Ubuntu Packages It would be nice, if I could synchronize two tabs I have open. Pretty much graphical rsync (although it uses kio) between two folders. E.g. I might want to synchronize the content of a folder on my usb disk and a folder on my university account. It could be put in the tools menu :)
This wish is related to bug #20752
Resetting assignee to default as per bug #305719
Any progress on this?
Full support for rsync might be a bit too much, but it would definitely be great if Dolphin had some sort of feature to sync folders. It's one of the features from FreeCommander that I do miss sometimes.
Why should Dolphin do the syncing of folders instead of some external and specialised tool? If this is only about syncing two tabs, isn't this quite easily accomplished by "Select All" in one tab. "Copy" and then "Paste" in the other?
(In reply to Felix Ernst from comment #5) > Why should Dolphin do the syncing of folders instead of some external and > specialised tool? > I did not say to not use rsync, just that full support for it might be a bit much. rsync has like a million options. I've used GUIs for it before, it gets very confusing very fast, if you don't know the tool anyways. I also hear quite often of newbies trying to use rsync and getting really confused by the lengthy manual. > If this is only about syncing two tabs, isn't this quite easily accomplished > by "Select All" in one tab. "Copy" and then "Paste" in the other? Only partially. Syncing is also about comparing the two folders, e.g. seeing which files are missing in one folder, which would be updated etc. Furthermore, what you suggested will only copy new files, but it won't delete any files that the source does not have. (i.e. rsync's --delete). See Free Commander's online manual as an example. The UI is a bit of a mess, but you get the idea. https://freecommander.com/fchelpxe/en/Synchronize.html
(In reply to Bernd Steinhauser from comment #6) > (In reply to Felix Ernst from comment #5) > > Why should Dolphin do the syncing of folders instead of some external and > > specialised tool? > > > I did not say to not use rsync, just that full support for it might be a bit > much. rsync has like a million options. I've used GUIs for it before, it > gets very confusing very fast, if you don't know the tool anyways. I also > hear quite often of newbies trying to use rsync and getting really confused > by the lengthy manual. Hmm, okay. Thanks for elaborating. Still, only because a GUI for this is implemented in Dolphin, it will not automatically be pretty. And if there was a pretty GUI for this in an external application, Dolphin could point users there. I don't see a good reason why this should be integrated into Dolphin directly. > > If this is only about syncing two tabs, isn't this quite easily accomplished > > by "Select All" in one tab. "Copy" and then "Paste" in the other? > Only partially. Syncing is also about comparing the two folders, e.g. seeing > which files are missing in one folder, which would be updated etc. > Furthermore, what you suggested will only copy new files, but it won't > delete any files that the source does not have. (i.e. rsync's --delete). > See Free Commander's online manual as an example. The UI is a bit of a mess, > but you get the idea. > https://freecommander.com/fchelpxe/en/Synchronize.html Ah okay. There really are a lot of settings there. It does seem to be its own window, so from what I can tell this window could also be put in a separate application. I also see that there are already applications which are meant to be GUIs for rsync. A quick online search gives me Grsync (not sure if this one still exists) and Unison (https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison). Now, looking back at the original request from 16 years ago above which says "It could be put in the tools menu :)", I think a good way forward would be if Dolphin's "Tools" menu had an action called "Synchronize Two Locations…" (or similar). That action would then either take the two locations which are currently open in Dolphin's split area mode in the current tab, or allow the user to choose among two locations among the open tabs. Those two locations should then in my opinion be passed to an external application that is launched right then and there. That external application would take the two location and show a user interface for syncing them. This way the user experience for Dolphin users is pretty much native, but we would have a clear separation of responsibilities. Furthermore it would allow us to switch the application Dolphin points to if a better one ever comes up. I hope that makes sense.
(In reply to Felix Ernst from comment #7) > Hmm, okay. Thanks for elaborating. Still, only because a GUI for this is > implemented in Dolphin, it will not automatically be pretty. And if there > was a pretty GUI for this in an external application, Dolphin could point > users there. I don't see a good reason why this should be integrated into > Dolphin directly. > I think it would be absolutely fine if this would end up in dolphin-plugins. > Ah okay. There really are a lot of settings there. It does seem to be its > own window, so from what I can tell this window could also be put in a > separate application. I also see that there are already applications which > are meant to be GUIs for rsync. A quick online search gives me Grsync (not > sure if this one still exists) and Unison > (https://github.com/bcpierce00/unison). > True, there are definitely tools that are dedicated to being a frontend to rsync. Actually there have even been various kdelibs/kde-frameworks-based tools that did at least something similar. That's why I would never pitch for a complete implementation of a rsync frontend (or any other matter of syncing) in dolphin. If you need that, get a specialized tool. However, a simplified version, be it rsync-based or not, could still be useful. i.e. something that tackles the most common use case with only very few options, but doesn't get too complicated. Similar to the situation with git, svn etc. dolphin-plugins does have an implementation for those, but only tackles the most common use cases. For anything more specific, you have to use something else. For me, such an interface could be: - Add a sync panel that can be shown/hidden (like e.g. the terminal) - In that have a compare and a sync button - Specify sync direction (left -> right or right -> left) - Delete yes/no - If one or multiple files are selected in the source tab, sync only those I think that should be enough for most users. All those advanced options in FC (some of which I sometimes use, but it's rare) are likely irrelevant for most users. Even tough I personally know rsync quite well and use it on a regular basis (without a UI), I think I would still use such an interface sometimes. e.g. I sometimes use dolphin to have a local and a remote tab (fish:// to my other computer) open and then sync some documents between them over the network. I can use rsync there, but it would be faster to use an integrated sync function (that maybe calls rsync), especially if I have to select specific folders to sync. I would never bother with opening another program for that, then I'd just enter the lines in the terminal instead.