SyncDiscs user guide

The main control window


The main control window

Screen shots of parts of the main control window are shown below.

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The top three writable fields can have directories dropped into them to provide the filing system paths to be used, or the paths can be typed in by hand. Manual entry may be necessary if you wish to use system variables, such as shown in the image above.

Primary  –  The 'Primary' is the main directory and is the directory that is to be 'backed up'.

Secondary  –  The 'Secondary' is the directory which is to be changed, and is to be made the same as the Primary directory.

Scrap  –  The third field is 'Scrap' - any files which have to be deleted from the Secondary directory are moved here. If the scrap directory is left blank, then scrap files will simply be deleted. It is important to remember that the scrap directory should not be in either of the primary or secondary directories.

All three icons can contain more than one directory, separated by commas. In this case there must be the same number of directories in each. For example, if there are two directories in each, the first primary directory is backed up into the first secondary directory, and the second primary directory is backed up into the second secondary directory. To make this easier, if a directory is dragged into a field with SHIFT held down, a comma will be inserted at the end of the current contents of the field, and the new directory will be appended. If you are using scrap directories, then there must be the same number entered as for the primary and secondary directories, otherwise the scrap directory will be treated as blank and files will simply be deleted from the secondary directory.

Note that each of these fields is limited to a total number of characters of 511. Thus if you try and drop in several directories with long path names, this limit will be reached and unpredictable behaviour will ensue (directory names truncated or missing).

If CONTROL is held down, the directory leaf will have one element removed - this is useful if you want to enter the root directory of a disc.

If CONTROL and SHIFT are both held down when a directory is dropped onto the Secondary field, then the leaf name of the Primary directory will be added to the Secondary path. This can be useful when setting up the backup directories for the first time.

Hint: If you are using a scrap directory, then it is useful to have it on the same device as the secondary directory, especially if it is being accessed over a network. While a copy would normally load the data in to memory as an intermediate step, SyncDiscs tries to be a little more subtle, and attempts a 'delete existing scrap file/rename old secondary file to scrap' as a first step before resorting to a 'copy to scrap with force set'. The former is very much faster of course, but renames are only possible if the two filenames are on the same device.

Path conflicts. There are a number of directory pathname settings that would result in problems.

SyncDiscs will try to trap such occurrences and warn you.

Recently used paths  –  SyncDiscs now keeps a list of the most recently used paths. To the right of the primary, secondary, and scrap file fields are menu buttons (see image above). Clicking on one of these will raise a menu containing up to the last 32 directories dragged to the field. Choosing one of these will automatically insert the path into the field. If the selection is made with the SHIFT key held down, then the path will be added to the current contents, rather than replacing them. Thus you can insert more than one path if needed.

A typical menu is shown below.

The list is maintained on a FIFO basis. The most recently used path will always be at the top, with the oldest used path at the bottom. If a path already in the list is reused, either from the menu, or by direct dragging, it will move back to the top of the list. If the list is full, and a new directory is set, then the bottom entry will be deleted.

The lists are automatically saved when SyncDiscs is quit, and reloaded when next run.


In the next part of the window are three option buttons, and another writable field for the logfile path.

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The three option buttons control what happens if there are files in the secondary directory that are newer than, or not present, in the primary directory.

Copy newer files from secondary to primary  –  If ticked, any newer files which are found in the secondary directory will be copied back to the primary directory.

Copy extra files from secondary to primary  –  If ticked, extra files on the secondary will be copied back into the primary directory. Note that this option may result in the 77 files in a directory limit being breached if you are using a version of RISC OS prior to 4.0. This option should be used with care, since files deliberately deleted from the primary directory since the last synchronisation will be copied back into the primary directory, effectively undeleting them.

Overwrite newer files on secondary  –  If ticked, any files found on the secondary that are newer than the corresponding files in the primary directory will be replaced by the primary file even although it is older.

Logfile  –  SyncDiscs can create a file which contains a record of all the file operations carried out. The file will record all files copied, moved or deleted. The file path is set up either by typing it in manually, or by pressing the menu button to the right of the writable field and dragging the icon from the resultant Save As dialogue to your chosen destination. The logfile will only be used if the option button to the right of the menu button is ticked. See the section Additional settings for further options to control the log file. The button to the right (labelled Open) provides a quick means of opening the logfile in a text editor, but only if it has already been created. If the log path field is shaded, it means that the option 'Save log in primary' has been ticked in the Additional settings window.

Note that SyncDiscs will never attempt to copy the logfile if it happens to be within the primary directory, whether the logfile is active or not.


At the bottom of the window are action buttons to control its operation.

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Start  –  will start the synchronisation process.

Cancel  –  will simply close the main window.

Save  –  There are two distinct operations that can be carried out.

  1. Clicking on the Save button will save a default file containing all the settings as shown in the window. When SyncDiscs is run again, the current contents will be restored, allowing the same operation to be easily repeated.
  2. Clicking on the Menu button to the right of the Save button will raise a standard Save as dialogue. In this case all the current settings (in both the main SyncDisc window and the additional Settings window) will be saved as a Syncjob file. This file can be saved anywhere, and double clicking it (or dragging to the SyncDisc window or iconbar icon) will immediately start (or queue if a synchronisation is already in progress) the synchronisation job. This provides an easy way of repeating a regular backup requirement. Further information on using syncjob files is here.

Compare  –  The 'compare' button initiates a complete comparison of the primary and secondary paths, although no changes are made to any files. At the end of the process a text file is automatically opened which displays the results. In this file is listed all the differences between the contents of the two paths. It can be useful to do a compare after a synchronisation has finished - this picks up any inconsistencies in the copying process.

Settings...  –  This will open the Settings... dialogue, allowing a number of other preferences to be set (see next page).


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SyncDiscs is © 2012, Chris Johnson and David Pilling
Email:chris@chris-johnson.org.uk

This document last modified on 2nd November 2020

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