Sync $HOME across linux machines

Solution 1:

For two way sync you should use unison (http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/) because rsync isn't that good at bidirectional syncing. Unison works via ssh and provides a commandline interface and a graphical user interface. Resolving conflicts has to be done manually (trust me, it's better doing it manually).

Most GNU/Linux distributions have unison in their repositories, the graphical interface mostly comes in a separate package like unison-gtk or something like that.

EDIT: Doesn't work via ftp, only ssh. Also you need to have it installed on both the source and the target.

Solution 2:

You should be able to do this using a cronjob that runs rsync:

Rsync is a fast and extraordinarily versatile file copying tool. It can copy locally, to/from another host over any remote shell, or to/from a remote rsync daemon. It offers a large number of options that control every aspect of its behavior and permit very flexible specification of the set of files to be copied. It is famous for its delta-transfer algo‐ rithm, which reduces the amount of data sent over the network by sending only the differences between the source files and the existing files in the destination. Rsync is widely used for backups and mirroring and as an improved copy command for everyday use.

        --safe-links            ignore symlinks that point outside the tree