Spola

Keep your folders in sync with Koofr, on GNOME.

Koofr's own desktop client works, but on GNOME it never felt at home: an old GTK 3 window, nothing in Files, and a tray icon that redraws itself every second, which broke the tray of the shell I use. So I wrote Spola. It keeps folders on your computer and folders on Koofr identical, in both directions, in the background, and it is careful with your files above everything else.

A spola is the shuttle of a loom, the piece that carries the thread from one side to the other. In Italian, fare la spola means going back and forth.

Install (Flatpak) Source on GitHub

Or from a terminal: flatpak install https://daniel-g-carrasco.github.io/spola/spola.flatpakref. It comes from its own signed repository and updates arrive through GNOME Software, like any other app. On Margine OS: ujust install-spola.

Spola's window: the overall status at the top, then the folders grouped by where they are, one of them syncing — What is going on at the top, then your folders, grouped by where they live.

How it works

You sign in with your Koofr e-mail and an app password (Koofr settings, Passwords: Koofr does not accept your main password from other apps), then you pick folders, each one paired with a folder on Koofr. Spola sits in the tray. Changes you make are picked up as they happen; changes made from your other devices show up within a minute, and once an hour Spola checks everything anyway.

When you add a folder, Spola looks on Koofr for its match: the same place as in your home folder, or a folder with the same name. If that is not it, you browse your Koofr folders one level at a time, or make a new one. Folders that are already synced are greyed out, so two pairs never fight over the same files.

Adding a folder: Music on this computer, /Music and /Archive/Music suggested on Koofr, or another folder — Adding a folder: the obvious match is already selected.

The tray icon keeps quiet while everything is up to date: it turns blue while syncing, orange when something needs you, red on errors. Its menu lists the files being transferred and the last ones synced; a click shows the file in Files.

I did not write a sync engine. Every sync is an rclone bisync run: rclone is well tested on thousands of machines, and I would rather put guards around it than reinvent it.

Careful with your files

A preview before every big step. The first sync of a folder, a repair, and any sync stopped by a safety check show you the list of what would happen. Nothing runs until you say so.
No surprise deletions. A sync that would delete more than 10% of a folder stops and waits for you. Files deleted or replaced on your computer go to a local backup for 30 days; on Koofr they go to Koofr's trash.
Conflicts keep both versions. When a file changed on both sides, you get two copies with readable names and a window to pick the one that stays.
An unplugged drive is not an empty folder. If the folder Spola knows is gone or replaced, the pair stops before rclone even starts.
Names Koofr refuses (emoji, names that differ only in case) are left out and shown to you; the rest keeps syncing.
Your app password stays in the keyring and never shows up in a command line.

The conflicts window: the file, its two versions with size and date, and a Resolve menu — A conflict: both versions with size and date, a click to see them in Files, a menu to decide.

In your file manager

Turn it on in the preferences and your file manager shows an emblem on every synced file and folder: up to date, syncing, waiting, error, conflict, left out. Right-click gives you Sync Now, Open on Koofr and the share link. The extension only reads from a cache, so the file manager stays as fast as it was.

Files (Nautilus), Nemo and Caja get both, through their Python bindings (nautilus-python, nemo-python, python3-caja; Margine OS has the first). Dolphin gets the Koofr menu right away, and the emblems with a small plugin you build once on your system: three commands. Thunar gets the menu only, because it has no way for an extension to draw emblems.

Files showing the home folder: Documents up to date, Photos syncing, Projects with a conflict — Your synced folders, as Files shows them.

Files in list view inside Projects: synced files, an excluded lock file, the two copies of a conflict — Inside a folder: synced files, an Office lock file left out, the two copies of a conflict.

Dolphin inside Projects: synced files, a lock file left out, the two copies of a conflict — The same folder in Dolphin, with the plugin.

Nemo inside Projects, with the same emblems — And in Nemo.

Coming from Koofr Desktop

Spola can take your Koofr Desktop folders over: spola import-koofr-desktop, or ujust install-spola migrate on Margine OS. Stop Koofr Desktop first: two sync engines on the same folders is the quickest way to lose files. In my case the folders were already identical on both sides and the first sync of each moved nothing, but you see that in the preview before anything happens.

Where it stands

This is version 0.2. I use it every day on my own machine, with 16 folders and a few hundred gigabytes, and it replaced Koofr Desktop there. It is still young: if something looks wrong, please open an issue. It speaks English and Italian.