Syncany

Syncany is an open-source cloud storage and filesharing application. It allows users to backup and share certain folders of their workstations using any kind of storage, e.g. FTP, Amazon S3 or Google Storage.

While the basic idea is similar to Dropbox and JungleDisk, Syncany is open-source and additionally provides data encryption and more flexibility in terms of storage type and provider:

• Data encryption: Syncany encrypts the files locally, so that any online storage can be used even for sensitive data.
• Arbitrary storage: Syncany uses a plug-in based storage system. It can be used with any type of remote storage.

Even though Syncany is still under heavy development, it already supports a wide variety of different storage types:

• Local Folder: uses any local folder as storage. This could be any mounted device, network file systems (NFS), or any virtual file system based on FUSE.
• FTP: uses an FTP folder as remote repository.
• IMAP: uses an IMAP folder as remote storage. Stores file chunks as e-mail attachments.
• Google Storage: uses a bucket in the Google Storage service as repository.
• Amazon S3: uses a bucket in the Amazon Simple Storage Service as remote storage.
• Rackspace Cloud Files: uses a Cloud Files container as remote storage.
• WebDAV: uses one folder in a WebDAV as remote storage.
• Picasa Web Albums: encodes the file chunks in images, and uses a Picasa album as repository.
• Windows Share (NetBIOS/CIFS): uses a Windows share as data repository.
• Box.net: uses a Box.net folder as data storage.
• SFTP/SSH: uses an SFTP folder as data storage.
• more to come ...

News

10 Apr 2012: After many people have asked: No, the project is not dead. However, my full-time job does not leave me much time for the project. At the moment, we're stripping down the code base to a minimium and are writing tests for the components. We're also reviewing much of the code -- and have to change a lot on core parts of it (sync algorithm, in-memory database, update files). We have reduced the code base from > 20.000 LOC to 8.000 LOC, introduced Ivy as build tool, changed the update-file semantics to make indefinite runtime of the application possible, daemonized the core, stripped out the GUI, stripped out the profiling capability, Singleton-ized everything, changed the config-mechanisms, incorporated some of the chunking mechanisms of my Master's thesis, etc.

The reason why we cannot share the progress in a public repository is that the project is now partly being developed by students, and is part of their grade. So we cannot share every step of the way. But I understand that we should at least publish something. I'll meet again with the students soon and we'll discuss finally publishing some code...

20 Nov 2011: Development update: we decided to reduce complexity in the current code base to make a stable Syncany core. As a first step in that direction, we will remove a couple of things for the first release: (1) the graphical user interface (command line daemon for now), (2) multi root folder functionality (only one folder for now), (3) remove JPA (speed optimization). Target date for this is end of January 2012.

11 Oct 2011: I started working, so my spare time is very limited right now. Luckily I found a way to keep the project going: five Uni Mannheim post-grad students will make a stable version of Syncany as part of their curriculum. The students' task is to stabilize the current code base and refactor necessary parts to create a fully working version of Syncany. Time horizon for the project is one year, but I expect a working version in a few months. I will of course still be hugely involved in everything!

18 Jul 2011: About a month ago I announced a preview release for end of July. It now looks like we won't be able to make this release in time. Maybe August/September is more realistic. Stay tuned!

3 Jun 2011: We're making good progress: the team is growing, the Windows version almost on the same level as the Linux version, and many people offered to translate Syncany in their language. We now have an IRC channel #syncany on Freenode for as well as a Wiki page to gather important information for developers. Thanks for everyone's support!

27 May 2011: I created a Syncany developer team and a developer mailing list on Launchpad. Please sign up if you'd like to help out or are interested in details. I'll post some specifications there soon.

25 May 2011: I was interviewed on the Ubuntu UK Podcast on Tuesday about Syncany. And Andrew from Web Upd8 wrote a very nice blog post about the software. I also created a Twitter account. Follow @syncany to stay up-to-date.

23 May 2011: First code is available on Launchpad. Detailed instructions on how to build and install can be found in the DEVELOPMENT file. Please be aware that this is a veeerrry early version. It's unstable and slow!

27 Apr 2011: Launched the website and the Launchpad project. I will publish the first working code and a demo video in a couple of weeks.

Screenshots

Download

There are no official releases yet. Stay tuned!
The first release will be for Linux. Windows and Mac versions follow.

Comparison to Existing Solutions

Software Name	File Manager Integration	Versioning	Client-Side Encryption	Provider Independence	Use any type of storage e.g. IMAP, FTP, ...	License
Dropbox		partially				proprietary
Jungle Disk		partially				proprietary
SparkleShare						open source
SpiderOak		partially				proprietary
Syncany						open source
Ubuntu One						proprietary (server) & open source (client)
Wuala						proprietary

Development

Syncany is open-source and needs helpers! You can check out the code on Launchpad.
If you are excited about Syncany, here's a few things you could do:

• Sign up on the Launchpad developer mailing list
• Check out the code using the instructions given in the DEVELOPMENT file
• Review my code and debug, debug, debug!
• Write the Windows/Mac parts
• Ask me! Contact details below.

To test the current trunk version of Syncany, read the instructions in the DEVELOPMENT file.