I have been using Acrosync successfully for years in order to mirror large directories of documents which are almost static (e.g. collections of scientific papers), from my main computers to my iOS devices. I have noticed time and again that the existence of a broken symlink in the source repository (most often a Linux remote server) would halt the execution of Acrosync on the iOS device with the message "symlink has no referent" (followed by the name of the broken symlink in the source directory). 

This behaviour is different from the standard rsync tool: rsync would seamlessy synchronize broken symlinks from source to target, by default.

Today I am trying to synchronize a large directory of "current work" files, where broken symlinks have a useful meaning. I find myself stuck.

I use symlinks on my Unix machines to avoid the useless replication of data across different directories. For example, large data or postscript/PDF files in one directory could be symlinked to other directories needing the same file locally. Every now and then, in order to minimize storage occupancy, I compress a whole subdirectory to a .zip file and then remove the subdirectory, e.g. whenever I know I won't need that subdirectory very often. Whenever the removed subdirectory contains an original file that was symlinked elsewhere, this removal creates broken symlinks here and there. If, at some point, I need the original reference of the broken symlink, I simply look up the filename it used to point to, I follow its path, I find the compressed archive that holds that file, I decompress it, and can work on it again. Thus, for me, the existence of broken symlinks is a necessary trace to a compressed file which needs to be temporarily decompressed (and then perhaps removed again).

The behaviour of Acrosync on broken symlinks (abort its run) means I either refrain from using it, or I must delete all the broken symlinks in my directory, which would mean I would no longer be able to use whole subdirectories, because I would no longer know where the missing files can be found. 

Is there any chance you could change (perhaps optionally?) the behaviour of Acrosync in presence of broken symlinks? I can envisage three options:

- just skip over the broken symlink without aborting (probably the easiest option)

- copy the symlink to the iOS device "as is" (I am assuming that the iOS filesystem has an idea of "symlinks")

- otherwise, create a small text file on the iOS device holding the name of the original file the source symlink points to.

Other than that, I'm grateful for this very useful tool!

Please let me know, and thanks for your work and your attention.

Yours,

Leo Liberti

I changed Timeout of RSync Server to 0 but the issue still happens. So I guess the Acrosync client has a similar timeout parameter which is shorter than 10 minutes? If so, any chance to increase the timeout or some other workarounds?

Thanks!!!

A comment: I can't see why there's no local file delete. It it that hard ti implement? Would be fantastic from my point of view since I download changing data from a single directory on this server daily. It's not critical though; I could easily get by if "propagate delete" was working as expected.

this is a nice rsync client for ios, but I would like to be able to configure some more options, e.g., to disable the dereference/transfer of symbolic links. Please consider adding some options in the profile configuration.

thanks

George

All help greatly appreciated.

George

I would like to propose two features for the next release (very easy to implement)

1) Black background, great for looking at pictures!

2) tap to hide/show menu bar, again great for looking at pictures

My use case is to clone my picture library which is organized into many folders (by year) and albums in those folders

Thanks!

Do you need more info to try to solve this problem? Tell me what you need.

Or a way to resize the separator between filenames and content?

It's very important for us!

Thank's

1. I am using acrosync to sync from my depositories of papers and books. I have many thousands, however, and I don't always remember what document I want to open. It would be great if there was a search tool for content, specifically PDF, DJVU and ASCII. Now I know this is not an easy addition, so maybe you won't want to put in the extra effort. But I thought I'd let you know nonetheless. I believe there are toolboxes for performing PDF and obviously ASCII content. I'm not sure there is an easily accessible one for DJVU.

2. I have to move the DJVU files to a specific reader to open them - it would be grand if I could directly read them in Acrosync.

3. Could there be an advanced mode where one could simply input their own rsync command line?

Of course the mother of all troubles is the silly sandbox concept in iOS - so it's difficult for users to use their files :-( 

Yours

Leo

George

Now, I am Puttied into the server in question over the same IP and port from a Windows box.  And, I am browsing the server's samba shares from the same iPad using the FileExplorer app.  So, there appears to be an issue affecting ssh on the tablet side, but I'm not sure if it is due to some change they made with the latest iOS update.

Starting from this version, the Pro version will be named "Acrsoync" and the Free version will be unavailable for download.  If you installed the Free version before and purchased the in-app upgrade, please send an email to software2014@acrosync.com and I'll send you a free promotional code.