Syncing - What to exclude

[mason.kramer]

I recently purchased a laptop to go with my mac desktop. I want to keep them two-way synced - everything that can be synced - applications, system preferences, and user preferences. I'm also synchronizing deletes, with an archival backup (for now).

I'm using ChronoSync 4.0 beta to do the syncing, but I think this question applies to any program that does syncing.

Questions for you:

1. What to exclude - this mainly comes down to a question of which files are logically associated with a particular host rather than a user or system.

2. Apps that require a license for each host pose a particular problem with keeping /Applications/ synced. I don't know how to keep the license codes from syncing while preserving syncs that update the .app packages and preferences. Does anyone have an idea how to do this? For now I'm excluding apps that need this, e.g. Adobe, Microsoft Office, AppZapper, TextMate, PathFinder, iWork, etc. But I really don't want to independently manage these executables. If anyone has any idea, by all means lay it on me.

3. How to handle software updates? I don't want to download them twice. My plan now is to manually download the packages and sync them over, then execute them by hand. However, fully automated is better, if anyone has an idea. The /System/ folder is not synced and updated by hand.

4. Here's what I'm excluding right now. Any other suggestions?

~ folder:
~/Library/Caches
~/nobackup
~/Library/Application Support/Caches
~/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Layouts
~/Library/Application Support/Logs
~/Library/Downloads
~/Library/Movies
~/Library/.Trashes
*empty folders
*common video formats
*common audio formats
*common disc image formats

In the root Library folder folder:
/Library/Caches
/nobackup
/Library/Application Support/Caches
/Library/Application Support/Keyboard Layouts
/Library/Application Support/Logs
*Applications with licenses

In /Applications/
nothing, except the apps I don't want on my laptop (I figure the license codes are stored in /Library/ - is this a safe assumption?)

 

[zachsilvey]

if they are synced to be almost identical what is the point of having the desktop. you could just put the laptop down on your desk, then you wouldn't be having this problem

 

[mason.kramer]

Thanks for your brilliant contribution. Why didn't I think of that? Let me go sell my desktop now. Perfect.

Edit: Sigh. That was a snippy, I guess. I use the desktop for its power when I am at home, and I use the laptop on the go. The desktop is much, much faster, and has a larger screen and keyboard. It has a mouse. It has a lot of internal harddrives that I use to mirror and backup my data. Etc.

 

[zachsilvey]

well played sir.