Syncthing

#file-storage #lang-go #sync 

Syncthing replaces proprietary file sync services with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. Your data is your data alone and you deserve to choose where it is stored, if it is shared with some third party and how it’s transmitted over the Internet.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

Prerequisites

Your syncthing URL needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

Like a lot of Go software, Syncthing is distributed as a single binary. Download Syncthing’s latest release, verify the checksum specified in the respective .sha256 file and finally extract the files.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir ~/syncthing
[isabell@stardust ~]$ wget -O syncthing/syncthing.tar.gz https://github.com/syncthing/syncthing/releases/download/v1.1.4/syncthing-linux-amd64-v1.1.4.tar.gz
[...]
100%[===============================================================================>] 8,690,658   8.17MB/s   in 1.0s
2019-05-30 19:16:12 (8.17 MB/s) - ‘syncthing/syncthing.tar.gz’ saved [8690658/8690658]
[isabell@stardust ~]$ sha256sum syncthing/syncthing.tar.gz
bb27b94d236276aac87088c554ec30fbecf2478a05f54d4ac23f801144583445 gitea/gitea
[isabell@stardust ~]$ tar --strip-components=1 -xzf syncthing/syncthing.tar.gz -C syncthing/
[isabell@stardust ~]$ rm syncthing/syncthing.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Configuration

Generate the configuration

generate a config start syncthing via

[isabell@stardust ~]$ ./syncthing/syncthing -generate=~/.config/syncthing/
22:56:57 INFO: Device ID: L3M5WQB-ZST2GT2-7OUBKYZ-7XSWWIV-G7MKB54-5OQNXJU-FJP567H-4YUL3QP
22:56:57 INFO: Default folder created and/or linked to new config
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Change the configuration

Syncthing needs to listen to all interfaces therefore you have to edit ~/.config/syncthing/config.xml. Find the following block

<gui enabled="true" tls="false" debugging="false">
    <address>127.0.0.1:8384</address>
    <apikey>ruPy5mvncF9J5jixzxUPoioGRtZyoVtY</apikey>
    <theme>default</theme>
</gui>

and change it to

<gui enabled="true" tls="false" debugging="false">
    <address>0.0.0.0:8384</address>
    <apikey>ruPy5mvncF9J5jixzxUPoioGRtZyoVtY</apikey>
    <theme>default</theme>
</gui>

Note

Syncthing provides many other configuration options. Take a look at the Documentation to learn more.

Configure web server

Note

Syncthing is running on port 8384.

To make the application accessible from the outside, configure a web backend:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set / --http --port <port>
Set backend for / to port <port>; please make sure something is listening!
You can always check the status of your backend using "uberspace web backend list".
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Setup daemon

To start syncthing automatically and run it in the background, create ~/etc/services.d/syncthing.ini with the following content:

[program:syncthing]
command=%(ENV_HOME)s/syncthing/syncthing

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Note

If syncthing is not RUNNING, check your configuration and the logs using supervisorctl maintail.

Finishing installation

Add password

Warning

Without password everybody in the internet can load files from and to your uberspace account!

To protect the access to your syncthing instance, visit your domain and set a username and password.

Best practice

Right now the server will sync with your devices only via a relay-server, which is not super fast. To improve performance, you can connect directly by opening a port in the firewall

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace port add
Port 40200 will be open for TCP and UDP treffic in a few minutes.
[isabell@stardust ~]$

remember this port.

then open ~/.config/syncthing/config.xml, find the following block and change it to:

...
<options>
    <listenAddress>tcp://:$yourport$</listenAddress>
    <globalAnnounceServer>default</globalAnnounceServer>
    <globalAnnounceEnabled>true</globalAnnounceEnabled>
    <localAnnounceEnabled>true</localAnnounceEnabled>
    <localAnnouncePort>21027</localAnnouncePort>
    <localAnnounceMCAddr>[ff12::8384]:21027</localAnnounceMCAddr>
...

Updates

Note

Syncthing is updating automatically.

Tested with Syncthing 1.1.3, Uberspace 7.2.14.0

Written by: stunkymonkey <http://stunkymonkey.de>