Unison is a console file
synchronization tool.
Here's the issue: my old BlackBerry is
starting to have problems downloading
podcasts. I *think* it's probably due
to TLS. The Bold 9900 has TLS 1.0 and
the world has moved on to TLS 1.3. I'm
not really sure why podcasters need to
use TLS 1.3, but they are. Are they
really worried about a MITM attack? Is
someone out there itching to
impersonate Nilay Patel?
Anyways, I've been looking for a
solution to the Podcast problem -- and
I think I've found one. The old
Palm-style USB sync.
The process involves downloading the
podcasts on my laptop, and then
connecting the BlackBerry by USB and
syncing the podcast folders on both
devices. That's where unison comes in.
Unison is a console utility (it also
has a GUI apparently) that allows you
to sync folders.
The syntax is really simple:
unison directory1 directory2
Or, in my case, since I'm syncing with
a FAT32 system, the command is
unison -fat directory1 directory2
It appears that when I attach the
BlackBerry by USB, it establishes the
same path every time. I guess only
time will tell whether that's true. In
any case, I am assuming that it is,
and I've created a little batch file
to shorten the command. If it works on
a regular basis, I think I'll add the
Palm Desktop sync sound to the batch
file for nostalgic purposes...
Unison may be useful in other contexts
as well. Since it can sync any two
folders that you can mount, it could
provide a cloud sync alternative to
syncthing.
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Obligatory K.Mandla reference:
https://inconsolation.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/unison-an-alternative-to-rsync/
