rsyncOSX/RsyncUI

Hi there 👋

RsyncUI and RsyncOSX are GUI´s on the Apple macOS platform for the command line tool rsync. The main difference between the two apps is how the User Interface (UI) is built. It is rsync which executes the synchronize data tasks in both apps. The GUI´s are only for organizing tasks, setting parameters to rsync and most likely make it easier to use rsync.

If you are on macOS Sonoma use RsyncUI. RsyncUI is under active development now and in the future.

Install by Homebrew

Both apps might be installed by Homebrew or by direct Download. The apps are signed and notarized by Apple.

App	Homebrew	macOS	Documentation
RsyncUI	`brew install --cask rsyncui`	macOS Sonoma	rsyncui.netlify.app
RsyncOSX	`brew install --cask rsyncosx`	macOS Big Sur and later	rsyncosx.netlify.app

Why two apps and latest versions

The development of RsyncOSX commenced in 2015 as a private project to learn Swift. In 2019, Apple released SwiftUI, which is a development framework for building user interfaces for iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, TVOS, and macOS. SwiftUI quickly became very popular, and after some investigation, I decided to commence another private project to learn SwiftUI. The model part of RsyncOSX was at that time quite stable, and I decided to refactor the GUI part of RsyncOSX by utilizing SwiftUI. And that is the short story behind the two applications.

App	Storage	#lines	#files	UI	Latest version	Version 1.0
RsyncUI	JSON	about 13.3k	162	SwiftUI, declarativ	v1.8.7 - 20 February 2024	6 May 2021
RsyncOSX	JSON	about 11K	121	Storyboard, imperativ	v6.8.0 - 13 April 2023	14 March 2016

There is also a test project about RsyncUI using SwiftData. There is some more info in the How is RsyncUI built. This project is a kind of experiement to learn more about it. SwiftData is easy to use, but i am not convinced it is right for RsyncUI.

Important to verify new tasks

The UI of RsyncOSX and RsyncUI can for users who dont know rsync be difficult to understand. Setting wrong parameters to rsync can result in deleted data. RsyncOSX nor RsyncUI will not stop you for doing so. That is why it is very important to execute a simulated run, a --dry-run, and verify the result before the real run.

External task executing rsync

Please be aware it is an external task not controlled by RsyncOSX or RsyncUI, which executes the command-line tool rsync. The progress and termination of the external rsync task are monitored. The user can abort the task at any time. Please let the abort finish and cleanup properly before starting a new task. It might take a few seconds. If not, the apps might become unresponsive.