[Discuss] Anyone tried Sparkleshare.org yet?

[Ian Levesque]

On Jun 28, 2011, at 10:18 AM, Matt Shields wrote:

>> I've recently given it a go hoping to be able to provide a dropbox-like experience for some users at work that expressed a need for sharable project folders accessible from anywhere. They are looking into paying for Dropbox because it "just works" (can't argue there), and I'm hoping to lure them back to using our network storage in a new way.
>> 
>> That said, I've had a few issues with Sparkleshare:
>> 
>>  * Decision to use ~/SparkleShare as a base directory
>>    - this directory isn't synced, it's just a "home" for synced dirs. this is confusing for end-users.
>> 
>>  * Reliance on git (currently... unison support is apparently coming)
>>    - slow and expensive commits for binaries (might be able to use git-bigfiles?)
>>    - duplicate bits stored in local git repo means nearly doubling your local storage req's
>> 
>>  * Basically no error notifications
>> 
>>  * DIY server still rough around the edges
>>    - still relies on using SparkleShare's XMPP server for notifications
>>    - initial setup of the client is weird; if you don't have the server in your ~/.ssh/known_hosts file, it fails.
>> 
>> When it's working, it does work pretty well even with these limitations. I've synced about 5GB to a local server and have done lots of edits/additions/deletions to stress test it. There have been times where it appears to be working forever, and I have to quit and restart the app. Ultimately, it's not ready for deployment and I'd caution that it's really only ready for someone that is prepared to babysit it a bit.
>> 
> 
> Does the server piece support multiple users?  If so, can it support folder sharing like Dropbox?  This might be great for companies that want to have an easy way to backup and share inside their company and be able to maintain their own infrastructure.

The "server" as it currently exists is a git install sitting on a box with SSH access. The SparkleShare client simply does an SSH connection via its own pubkey and calls the git binary. So you get the features afforded you by git, including the ability to have shared access to a repository (folder). I haven't yet seen how SparkleShare handles conflicts, however. I'll have to give that a test next...

~irl