Computer Synchronization

[Chopstick]

Hi Everyone!

I recently installed kubuntu on my Surface 6 Pro, and with my laptop I now have two kubuntu machines, plus an open-source Android phone and a Windows 10 workstation at work.

With that and travel and hybrid work becoming a thing a gain, I was thinking that I need to synchronize my systems, so that I can more easily move between office (workstation), home office (docked laptop) and travel (SP6). There are some files I want to keep directly in sync on all computers; a lot of that can be done through git, too, though it is less ideal for things like figures and presentations, and there are some files I only want to share between the kubuntu machines. Back a few years ago I used Unison to sync my Windows workstation and kubuntu laptop (which worked quite well), however, that requires ssh login and doesn't work so well with more than two machines.
Plus, now there is also the consideration of sync'ing some configuration files for KDE between the SP6 and the laptop - in fact, not doing so, and replicating my setup seems like quite a chore...

I was wondering what solution folks have come up with for that scenario, which essentially has two sub-scenarios: 1) sync'ing documents and project folders between several heterogeneous machines and 2) sync'ing parts of the system config and basically all personal files between two similar setups (a laptop and a surface running kubuntu 22.04).
Is sync'ing KDE config files directly something I can do, or should I refrain from that? I am not sure how much this is going to mess up the system...

Finally, I came across something called Syncthing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncthing - does anyone have experience with that?

Thanks for your input!

[claydoh]

Syncthing works great for the purpose, as long as you remember that it really does sync all the changes everywhere, no histories or previous versions. Copy a file out of the synced dirs before working on it, if you don't have versioned backups of things. I have been bitten by this. But I am a klutz.

For syncing desktop configs, that can be messy imo, at least for keeping things synced, and for how deep you want to go.
But there is a widget for that. https://store.kde.org/p/1298955/ <<<--could be broken nowdays
You could do this every so often, and sync the resultant exported file.
There are numerous scripts that performs similar functions
How well syncing Plasma settings works between systems will probably depend on having the same Plasma versions, or alt least somewhat close ones - the configs have not changed much. Differences in hardware might have some effect, if screen sizes and layout information are included, or any touchpad settings that may need to be adjusted between machines, I imagine. Things like that.

[Chopstick]

Thanks, claydoh! I've used PlasmaConfigSaver extensively on my laptop in version 20.04 when switching between different monitor setups, but it appears to be broken in 22.04.
You are right about the screen setup differences... I guess it is primarily shortcuts and window behaviour that I want to keep in sync. - and a lot of application settings for all the standard apps.