Backup laptop/relicate 2 different machines to sync

[Tracker]

So I want to use 2 machines, call them X and Y. I might predominantly use X and occasionally Y.

What I want to do it : I want both machines to sync (preferably locally) with each other and show my latest state of work that I did on either X or Y.

What is the best way to go about it?

PS: Both machines are different hardwares, so using dd etc might be problematic due to driver issues and so on.

 

[nxjoseph]

If you want your data to sync too, then might suggest Syncthing. Both X and Y must be online for it to work and always check Syncthing UI (hosted at http://localhost:8384 by default).

show my latest state of work that I did on either X or Y.

If you are programming or something, you can use some version control system like devel/git. You would setup a git server on X, pull the recent changes from Y. I guess.

You can also use net/rsync with ssh, rsync can detect new updates to files.
--update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver

 

[Tracker]

f you want your data to sync too, then might suggest Syncthing. Both X and Y must be online for it to work and always check Syncthing UI (hosted at http://localhost:8384 by default).

Thanks - isn't syncthing restricted to just smaller files instead of the entire, say, home folder that I aim to sync

If you are programming or something

Not really for programing, just in general, though programming is a subset for which I could use git - but if I can figure out a more general solution then I think programming should be fine for my use case of replication.

You can also use net/rsync with ssh, rsync can detect new updates to files.
--update, -u skip files that are newer on the receiver

I did consider rsync - but doesn't it involve complexities like figuring out which one is more recent and then scripting my way - how difficult is it?

Also what about any ZFS solution? I thought that was a possibility but not very familiar.

 

[SirDice]

Has been newly started (or continued) here: https://forums.freebsd.org/threads/best-way-to-keep-two-machines-in-sync-with-freebsd.99898/

To prevent the discussion from getting smeared across two threads I've closed this one.