[Leaplist] discussion - ways to share/access data

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Wed, 11/5/08, Dan Cherry <dan.s.cherry at gmail.com> wrote:
> I use multiple computers ...
> ... a small server
> ... work primarily on a desktop
> ... and a laptop (about 50-50)
> ... Other family members access some of the shared data
> ... I like to take my /home/user directories, and get as much
> of the 'data' files (documents, images, audio, etc.) isolated
> from the 'config' files as possible
> ... I also like to isolate wip from completed work - the
> completed work (such as images, audio files, pdfs, bin files
> and downloads) get moved to a /share area

Based on these aforementioned "requirements" and "ideals" ...

> I've tried...
> 1) sharing a single folder area ... with nfs and automount ...
> 2) duplicating document folders ... with rsync ...
> 3) ssh and nfs access to /share/docs type of folder ...

And now these aforementioned "experiences" ...

I have one, _major_ recommendation ...

  Discipline your users and yourself

This is _regardless_ of the "technologies."  In fact,
if you try to throw "technologies" at "non-uniform"
and "inconsistent" ways of doing things, it makes
matters far worse.

A.  Standardize "where users 'work'"

Long ago I made it a standard practice that I would work out
of _only_ two directories in my home directory.

  ~/work  for things directly on the server (NFS)
  ~/worksync  for things on my notebook(s) (rsync)

On my notebook, I only had "~/worksync."
On my network (desktop/servers), I had both.
I'd rsync my notebook's "~/worksync"

In your case, you're probably not interested in NFS
for user-level.  Local storage with rsync on systems is
just fine.  Create a simple script for users to run when
they want to ensure they "sync" their documents to the
server.  Setup public key with SSH and SSH on a non-22
port so they can sync on the road too.

B.  Standardize "where users 'publish'"

Likewise, I have a standard directory where users
"publish" what they want others to be able to read
(or possibly edit).  Something like /home/projects/,
with permissions 1775 or something like that (it's
debatable), so users can create directories and files.

You then force them to "copy" or otherwise "rsync"
to that when they have "good versions."  You are
already familiar rsync, so that is likely what you'd
want to try to enforce.  Alternatively, you could try
to use a version control system to "commit" updates
as "published."

I like Trac+Subversion (like web-front-end), but the
distributed version control systems are gaining in
popularity, such as git.  If you and your users learn
those -- of which there are easy plug-ins to even
Windows Explorer -- it would solve this.

All without having to use a network filesystem protocol.
Using protocols that are more favorable to disconnected
computing.



-- 
Bryan J Smith          Professional, Technical Annoyance
b.j.smith at ieee.org    http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
--------------------------------------------------------
I don't have a "favorite Linux distro."  I use, develop
and support community efforts, often built around Linux.
Technology and solutions are my focus, not dragging in
assumptions, marketing and other concepts which dominate
non-community developed software, which I left long ago.



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