Comments on How to Install Syncthing Remote File Synchronization Software on Debian 11
Syncthing is a free and open-source file syncing application used to sync files between multiple remote devices over the internet. It works on peer-to-peer architecture and exchanges the data automatically between two devices.
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Thank you for the article on Syncthing! I'm happy to see that more people are becoming interested in freedom and privacy respecting alternatives to the big commercial providers. It's also great to see more documentation about how to set it up, because that's frequently said to be tricky. This said, please note the following inacuracies:Two servers are not required. Syncthing also works with laptops, desktops, workstations, and Android devices.Syncthing should be run with `systemctl enable --user syncthing` with an unprivileged user, and *never* as root. eg: principle of least privilege. To run any network facing service as root is a huge vulnerability. It may also be worth mentioning that multiple users may each run their own syncthing --user service, because newly created files are owned by the service process owner (eg: permissions are clobbered), and paths with more restricted permissions than 777 will be unreable and/or unwriteable by their intended owner. When the first user has started the service, and a second user starts their own service, the second Syncthing instance configures itself to use a non-conflicting port.Syncthing has been part of Debian "main" (the default repo) since May 2016, and a user does not need to enable an external repo. In other words, Syncthing was part of Debian 9 ("stretch"). Backports of the latest available version are made available to users of stable when the benefit is significant enough (eg: performance enhancements, bug fixes that don't meet the criteria for stable-updates, etc.). Also, the Debian package includes a systemd service by default.