Syncthing, the cross-platform file synchronization tool that doesn’t need cloud storage, has finally released its big 2.0 update. The new version has some great performance and reliability improvements, updated terminal commands, and much more.
Syncthing is agreat way to keep your files synchronized between multiple computers, without using a centralized location like cloud storage or a NAS. The new 2.0 update has a few significant technical changes to improve performance and stability—it’s now using SQLite instead of LevelDB for the internal database, and deleted items are now deleted from the database after six months (by default) instead of staying in there for all time.
This release also enables multiple connections by default between v2 devices. That has been anoptional featuresince version 1.25, and it “can yield improved performance by load-balancing traffic over multiple physical links or in other scenarios.” This update also no longer creates a default folder on first startup.
Interestingly, Syncthing 2.0 marks the end of the experimental “next-gen-gui” interface, which was arevamped web panelfor for checking the status of larger setups. There hasn’t been much work on it over the past few years, so the code is fully ripped out now, and theregular admin GUIis still around.
Finally, there’s a pile of important bug fixes in this release related to conflicting files, logging, errors on paused devices, and more.
Breaking Changes
If you’re already using Syncthing, there are a few changes to deal with in this release. The command-line options have been modernized with the more typical Linux/Unix formatting. For example, the-homeoption is now–home, and some other options have been renamed or moved to subcommands. You can see all the available options with thesyncthing serve –helpcommand, and if you have scripts or anything using the old commands, they might need to be updated.
Syncthing has also stopped prebuilt binaries for some platforms, “due to complexities related to cross compilation with SQLite.” The full list of dropped platforms is below:
This doesn’t stop package repositories or anyone else from compiling new builds, but it’s not clear if that will happen for all dropped platforms. Debian’s software packages is still onSyncthing 1.29.5, andArch Linuxis currently on version 1.30.
Get Syncthing
You can visit theofficial Syncthing websitefor guides on getting started, and links to download the latest v2.0 binaries. The developers said to “Expect some rough edges and keep a sense of adventure,” but there were several testing releases for the 2.0 update, so itshouldbe safe to update now.
If you have Syncthing installed through a package repository, it might take a few more days (or weeks) for the new update to roll out to you. The binaries available from Syncthing’s website and GitHub repository are ready, though.
