syncthing-map

A utility to map syncthing devices and shared folders.

The binaries are automatically released at each update of the stable and development (has dev in the version name) version. Use the stable one except if you want to test some development updates.

Usage

syncthing-map relies on the configuration file (config.xml) of a device running Syncthing to build a map of relations between folders and devices that they are shared with.

There are currently two ways to provide these configuration files:

• Manual: you need to retrieve from the device you want to map its config.xml file manually. It leans copying it via scp, a Windows share or whatever you use to move files between your devices. Once you have this file locally, you run the appropriate command to add it to the "database of processed devices" (see the "Manual" section for details). You need to repeat this operation for each device (and its confix.xml file)

• Automated: since retrieving configuration failes each tile something changes is burdensome, you can automate the process by

  • sharing with Syncthing the configuration folder of a device (to one chosen device)
  • updating a file (syncthing-map-server.yaml) on that chosen device with that information
  • starting on that one chosen device syncthing-map in a server mode: this will start a web server you can connect to to see your map
    The obvious advantage is that whenever you change something in any of the devices, it is automatically reflected in the map you get via the web server

It is probably a good idea to map one or two devices manually first to get an idea of how the map looks like (and if you like it 🤨) before jumping into the Automated mode.

Automated (way cooler, requires to share the configurations)

This mode allows to request via HTTP an map of the connections, created on the fly.

Preparation of source folders

In order to process several folders, syncthing-map reads a configuration file: syncthing-map-server.yaml. It is an array of objects, which keys are folder (the folder that hold an config.xml) and device (the name of the device for the folder). An example of such a file on a Windows system:

- device: my-laptop
  folder: C:\Users\Y\AppData\Local\Syncthing
- device: srv
  folder: D:\syncthing-configuration\srv
- device: galaxy-s22
  folder: D:\syncthing-configuration\galaxy-22

Make sure that device has the same as the one defined on the device which configuration is shared (usually its hostname). Otherwise you will see a rather chaotic map.

The natural way to share the configurations is though Syncthing itself! You will typically choose a machine on which you will run syncthing-map in server mode and share with it configurations from other devices.

In the example above, the machine my-laptop reads its own configuration (this is a Windows 10) and receives from srv and galaxy-s22 configurations it stores in D:\syncthing-configuration. Cool, right?

Out of abundance of caution :) it is recommended to share the configuration in a "send only" mode. Just in case.

It is also recommended to use the .stignore file to ignore some ever-chnaging files (database, logs, ...). I use

syncthing*
index*
index**

Where to find the config files

Most systems configurations are mentioned in the documentation.

For Android you must manually input /data/data/com.nutomic.syncthingandroid/files as the folder.

Running the server

syncthing-map server

If you launch http://localhost:3000 in a browser, you will see the map using the data from syncthing-map-server.yaml. Yay!

You can edit syncthing-map-server.yaml on the fly - each call to the server reads this config file.

Finally, each call also creates syncthing-map-server.html, an offline version of the map (this is what is actually sent back by the server).

Manual (more traditional, where you retrieve the configurations yourself)

Run the following command repetedely for each config.xml you have access to (how to find it)

syncthing-map add --device <name of the device you took the config.xml from> --file <copied config.xml, possibly renamed>

An example of what you should see (with two devices/configs) is

PS D:\syncthing-map> .\syncthing-map.exe add --device srv --file config-srv.xml
2023-01-09T19:46:02+01:00 INF wrote data-cli.json file
PS D:\syncthing-map> .\syncthing-map.exe add --device router --file config-router.xml
2023-01-09T19:46:16+01:00 INF wrote data-cli.json file

This added (or updated) two devices to the database file. This file (data-cli.json by default) will be initially created if absent, then updated with each add command. It gathers relevant information about each of the devices and its folders. The more you run syncthing-map add, the better your map will be - otherwise you will see that you are sharing fildes with a crazily named thing (this is the ID of the remote device).

When you are done with adding devices/configurations, run

syncthing-map graph

This will create syncthing-map.html that you can open with a browser. If everything went well, you should see a comprehensive map of your devices and their folders.

In the example above, you see a yellow rectange titled router. This a device. Its name comes from the --device parameter avove and its contents were generated based on the config.xml from that device.

It has two folders named /etc and ssh keys. They correspond to actual folders on your filesystem but the path is not shown here.

The way to read an arrow going from a folder is

(folder) is connected as (sendreceive, sendonly, receiveonly) to (device)

In the case of the folder called /etc, it is shared in a sendonly mode with the device (redacted), and in the mode sendreceive with the device srv.

This is what you will see when sharing folders with a device that has not be "read" (its config.xml file was not added)

This means that Michael Cours shared by a device (the name is not visible) is connected to a device that has not been processed (only known by its ID). This device is however defined in other config.xml files as Michael Laptop so the probable name is provided.

It may be that on that this unprocessed device has given itself another name. We will not know until its config.xml file is processed.

Clean up

syncthing-map clean will remove the .json and .html files so that you can start from scratch.

What next?

• better graph chart, not static, that would allow to maybe filter hosts and move them around.
• unlikely: I will write the above myself based on d3 or something like that

Conclusion

This is a hobby project done follwong some discussions on the Synthing forum.

Feel free to open Issues if you find bugs, or start Discussions.

I should probbaly add a license but I do not care, so let it be WTFPL.

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