Caching network-aware filesystem?

[Jeffry Smith]

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:19 PM, Mark Komarinski <mkomarinski at wayga.org> wrote:
> Hopefully the rise of netbooks will make this question a bit easier to
> answer, but here goes.
>
> I just returned from a trip where I took close to 1000 pictures with my
> cameras.  My Dell mini was a real trooper during the trip, but there's
> only so many photos I can store on it before it starts to run out of
> space.  What I would *really* like is the a filesystem that can:
>
> -Be network aware.  If I can get to the server, automagically connect
> and display what is available
> -Have a sense of caching, so if I'm offline or on a slow connection, I
> can still load data on to it and have it sync up later.
> -Be smart about what files to keep cached.  If I use a file, load it
> locally and then remove it from the local cache if unused after some
> period of time (or the local cache gets filled with new content)
> -work over ssh or equally 'secure' manner
> -Be something other than coda or intermezzo.  Neither are well supported
> or apparently in use anymore, though both appeared to be exactly what I
> was looking for.  I'd love it if someone could correct me on this.
>
> My current method is to use sshfs to mount a remote directory to my
> Photos directory and import files using F-spot.  At least it sorts files
> by date and can export to Gallery Web, though any other use of that
> software is worthless.  Using sshfs takes care of part of it, but if I'm
> off the network or on a very slow network, it is not very useful.  For
> this purpose, I'll be reading from multiple locations, but writing from
> only one at a time, and I'm only using two cameras (each with their own
> unique file naming format) so concurrency and handling conflicts should
> not be an issue.
>
> On a side note, this idea would work for other types of media as well,
> such as loading music or movies to a local system before going on a trip.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> -Mark

Unfortunately (given you said no coda or intermezzo), coda
(www.coda.cs.cmu.edu/) is what I used in the past for these exact
reasons - it would sync my laptop with the server automatically.

Since I no longer use a server machine, I haven't used it for a while.
 I do most backups to external drive via rsync these days.

jeff