Synk 2.1 is distributed as shareware. This entitles you to use the program for a period of 15 days. If you like it and want to continue using Synk, please register the program by sending the author $10 US in either cash or US check made out to Randall Voth:
Randall Voth
46058 Fiesta Avenue
Chilliwack, BC
Canada V2P 3S4
The money should not be visible from outside the envelope. The equivalent money in major currencies is also acceptable. But please, no coins or damaged bills (such as a tear and taped back together) because I cannot exchange them.
Future upgrades are free. Site licences are available. Please see accompanying “Registration” documentation for a form to print up and send along with your payment.
As well, if possible, send a confirmation email to: <rvoth@uniserve.com>
Requirements
Synk 2.1 requires System 7 and a computer capable of running in color. Synk 2.1 does not support the Mac Plus, Mac Classic or PowerBook 100.
Drag and Drop of folders onto the Synk document window requires System 7.5.
Synk can copy files to and from any media that will mount on the Finder’s Desktop. Examples of such items are hard drives, floppy disks and removable media like Zip disks. Tape drives are not supported.
Your computer’s RAM cache should be set to something larger than minimum. Synk works fastest when it can compare cached file information. Set this in the Memory Control Panel and restart your computer. Something between 300 K and 1024 K is reasonable, but experiment for what is best for your situation.
If you copy a lot of large files, you may want to increase the partition size allocated to Synk by setting the “Preferred Size” to a larger number in the Synk Get Info from the Finder. This gives Synk a larger copy buffer.
Getting Started
Copy the Synk 2.1 application to a suitable location on your Macintosh’s hard drive. Keep a backup copy of Synk safely on a floppy disk.
Double click the Synk 2.1 icon from the Finder. An information dialog will appear, telling you how to register your copy of Synk. This information is always available beneath the Apple menu with the “About Synk...” menu choice.
Click OK and an untitled Synk document will appear:
Backup copies “From...” folder files into the “To...” folder. It also removes any obsolete files in the “From...” folder.
Synchronize copies files so that both “Select...” folders will contain the latest version of any of each folder’s files.
If you are using System 7.5, you can drag folders from the Finder onto the folder definition text in the Synk document window. Otherwise, click the selection buttons to define your folders.
Clicking the Go button will execute the backup or synchronization as described in the main document window. The Go button becomes available whenever both folders are properly chosen. When archiving obsolete items, the archive folder must also be chosen for the Go button to be available.
After defining the folders, select how you would like the obsolete files removed from the Obsolete Files Popup Menu. If you choose to archive them, you must also define an archive folder.
Obsolete Files are those that would be removed from a folder because they are either outdated by a newer file or no longer exist in the “From...” folder during a backup. These files can be Deleted, Trashed or Archived into a folder.
During a Backup, you can check the “To” Items Not Existing In “From” Folder Are Obsolete option to remove files/folders, as per the Obsolete Files popup menu choice, from a backup folder that no longer exist in the source folder. Unchecking this option will leave these old files alone.
The Skip Nested Folders setting will only copy root level files in the selected folders. Unchecking this item will copy any folders that may be contained within.
Skip Aliases prevents Synk from resolving or copying any aliases it may find. See more about Aliases later in this document.
When Skip Aliases is unchecked, you have the option to Resolve Only Top Level Aliases. This means that the only aliases resolved are those immediately contained in the folders you define, but all other aliases buried in the depths of your hard drive will be ignored.
Copy File Positions places files in the same position within its Finder window as the source file after copying it.
Save and open documents as one would do in any Macintosh application.
Selection Rules
Synk allows you to ignore files of any creator or type. Each file on the Macintosh has a “creator” and a “type”. For instance, a document created by TeachText will have a creator of ‘ttxt’ and a type of ‘TEXT’.
As an example, to skip applications simply instruct Synk to skip all files of type ‘APPL’. Click in the “Skip File Types:” list box so the box becomes hilighted...
...and then click the “New...” button. Select any application you may find with the file dialog and click the “Open” button.
Synk will now ignore any files of type ‘APPL’. In other words, skip any applications that exist in the folders you define to be backed up or synchronized.
Creators are a more general form of file selection. Choosing an application and adding it’s creator to the “Skip File Creators:” list will skip the application, its documents and related files. There are exceptions, but you will need to experiment to discover them depending on the applications you use.
Select a file creator as you selected a file type, just click on the “Skip File Creators:” list box so it becomes hilighted before clicking the “New...” button.
Remember that choosing a file’s creator will skip that file, all related files and it’s creating application.
File endings can be useful for selecting files for backup. For instance, a file ending of “.nb” could be used to mean no backup.
Hilight the “Skip File Endings...” list box and click the “New...” button.
Files or folders ending with the text entered in this dialog will be skipped during a backup or synchronization. In the case of aliases, it is the alias name that is used for comparison, not the original item.
To delete any of the above items from their list boxes, simply select the desired items and click the “Delete...” button. More than one item can be selected at once.
Action Log
All backup and synchronization actions are recorded in the document’s log. To display the log, choose Show Log from the Edit menu. As of version 2.1.0, the log is no longer limited to 32k of text and will grow indefinitely.
If Synk is running short of memory, check to see how large the log has grown. The log is stored in the Synk document which makes the document get larger each time you run the file unless you clear the log.
To manually clear the log, choose Clear Log from the Edit menu. To have the log cleared before each run of the document, set the appropriate preference.
Preferences
Select Preferences from the File menu.
To automatically display the action log when a backup or synchronization is completed, check the Display log upon completion option in the Preferences dialog box.
To log any skipped items, check the Log skipped items option in the Preferences dialog. This option is useful for making sure your selection rules are working but logging skipped items may take up more space in the log than need be.
To routinely clear the log before each run of a document, check the Clear log before each run option.
To automatically run a document when opening a document by double-clicking in the Finder, check the Documents run immediately from Finder option. This option is useful for placing a Synk document in the Shutdown Items folder within the System Folder.
Automatically running documents from the Finder will quit Synk as soon as the backup or synchronization is completed. Therefore, to modify a document with this option enabled, you must open the document from within Synk by selecting the Open... menu item after first double-clicking on the Synk application.
To avoid the beveled, grayscale appearance, check the Do not use grayscale appearance. Any windows opened thence will be boring but fleet afoot!
Common Errors
The most likely errors you will encounter in the log file are:
-37 no room on destination volume for copy
-47 file in use
-48 file could not be copied because a file exists with the same name. This may occur if you have chosen to skip aliases but an alias of the same name as a source file exists.
-45 file locked and could not be deleted
-44 disk is write-protected
If there are errors during a backup or synchronization, Synk will warn you with a dialog and display the log.
Files cannot be deleted when “in use” but they can often be copied. For instance, if you are currently working on a document and you synchronize two folders, one containing the open document, Synk will generally be able to copy the open document to another volume. It does not work, however, to replace an open document or copy an open document from another volume (such as a network volume). In this case, you will get a -47 error.
If you are receiving any other errors, please contact the author at <rvoth@uniserve.com> with as much information about the situation as you can provide.
Using Aliases
Synk’s ability to resolve aliases allows you to select which folders and files are backed up or synchronized by collecting a folder full of aliases and selecting this folder as one of the source folders. Make sure the “Skip Aliases” option is unchecked.
Though an alias’ resolved source file data is copied, the name of the originating alias is the name used when creating and comparing files. For instance, if an alias in the source folder, “foo alias”, points to a file called “foo”, then a file will be created with the name “foo alias” in the destination folder. The created file will not be an alias and the name may be confusing. For this reason, it may be wise to rename your aliases after creating them from the default given by the Finder.
Aliases added or removed from source or destination folders are an easy way to modify your backup strategy without changing the Synk document in any way.
The only danger is when you make an alias of a folder and place it within the actual folder or within a folder that is contained within the original. Synk will resolve the alias and begin copying the contents of the folder. When it comes upon the alias, it will once again resolve the alias. This creates an endless loop and Synk will eventually run out of memory.
It is up to you to recognize this and make sure no aliases pointing to parent folders are contained within the folders you choose to synchronize.
Please refer to your Macintosh documentation for more information on aliases.
Collisions
A collision occurs whenever two files to be synchronized have been modified since the last time the Synk document was run. Since Synk is not psychic, it cannot tell which document you may want to keep, so it throws the older of the two into a folder on the Desktop called “Collisions”.
The Author
Please send bugs and suggestions to Randall Voth <rvoth@uniserve.com>
He is currently working on a revolutionary new multi-view outliner that is taking much longer than anticipated but will definitely be worth the wait.
Legal Stuff
Use of Synk is the sole responsibility of the user and is provided “AS IS”, without warranty of any kind. Raja software and the author of Synk expressly disclaim all warranties and/or conditions, express or implied. Raja software and the author of Synk are not responsible for any damages resulting from the use of this software.
