Rsync UI

Rsync UI is a web application that lets you create, schedule, and execute file synchronization jobs with just a few clicks, powered by rsync.

Highlights

• Dashboard for job health, activity, schedules, and storage
• Synchronization jobs for local and remote destinations
• Fully customizable command-line arguments
• Automation through scheduled jobs
• Remote server management with SSH key deployment and resource usage visibility
• Custom pre-/post-synchronization hooks
• Builtin customizable notifications
• Real-time synchronization progress
• SSH command auditing for security and compliance

Screenshots

Note

Artificial Intelligence tooling is used during the development of this project. All generated code is thoroughly reviewed, tested, and verified manually to ensure the highest quality and security standards.

Getting started

Rsync UI runs as a set of Docker containers. Docker compose is the recommended way to run the application.

x-app: &app
  image: ghcr.io/floriandejonckheere/rsync-ui:latest
  volumes:
    - rsync_ui:/app/storage/ # Directory for rsync logs
    - /path/to/storage:/data/storage:ro # Your local storage directories
    - /path/to/backup:/data/storage:rw # Your local storage directories
  environment:
    SECRET_KEY_BASE: my-secret # Application secret key
    ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY: my-secret # Encryption secret key
    ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY: my-secret # Encryption secret key
    ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT: my-secret # Encryption secret key

    PG_HOST: postgres
    PG_USER: rsync_ui
    PG_PASSWORD: rsync_ui
    PG_DATABASE: rsync_ui

    APP_HOST: rsync-ui.example.com # URL of the application
    APP_EMAIL: rsync-ui@example.com # Email address of the application

    ADMIN_EMAIL: rsync-ui@example.com # Default admin account
    ADMIN_PASSWORD: rsync-ui # Default admin password
  depends_on:
    - postgres

services:
  web:
    <<: *app
    ports:
      - "3000:3000"

  worker:
    <<: *app
    command: bin/jobs

  postgres:
    image: postgres:18
    volumes:
      - postgres:/var/lib/postgresql/18/docker/
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: postgres
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: postgres
    ports:
      - "5432:5432"

volumes:
  postgres:
  rsync_ui:

Generate secrets using openssl rand -hex 32.

Docker compose

The easiest way to get started is to use Docker compose:

1. Install Docker and Docker compose
2. Clone the repository
3. Run docker-compose up -d
4. Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser

Development

First, ensure you have a working Docker environment.

Start the application

Pull the images and start the containers:

docker-compose up -d

Set up the PostgreSQL database:

docker-compose exec app bundle exec rails db:setup

Load sample data into the PostgreSQL database:

docker-compose exec app bundle exec rails database:seed

The application is now available at http://localhost:3000.

Development environment

The development environment includes three fake SSH servers that simulate remote storage targets, seeded with realistic data so jobs can be run end-to-end without real infrastructure.

Container	Script	Mount
nas	docker/ssh/init-nas.sh	./tmp/data/nas → /data
backup	docker/ssh/init-backup.sh	./tmp/data/backup → /backup
mirror	docker/ssh/init-mirror.sh	./tmp/data/mirror → /backup

The app container stores all local repository data under ./tmp/data/app (mounted to /data).

The following jobs are pre-seeded and can be run against these servers:

Job	Source	Destination	Schedule
Docker replica	Docker (local)	Docker Replica (local)	Every 5 minutes, disabled
Home backup	Home (local)	Home backup (Backup server)	Daily at 02:00
Projects backup	Projects (local)	Projects backup (Backup server)	Daily at 02:00
NAS photos sync	NAS Photos (NAS server)	Photos (local)	Weekly on Sunday at 03:00
Photos mirror sync	Photos (local)	Photos mirror (Mirror server)	Weekly on Monday at 03:00

Source repositories are pre-populated with representative data. Destination repositories start empty and are filled when their job runs.

To reset all destination repositories back to their initial empty state, run from the project root:

docker/reset.sh

Dependencies

Use the bin/update script to update your development environment dependencies.

Debugging

Call binding.break anywhere in the source code to start a debugger.

Testing

Run the test suite:

rspec

Secrets

Repository secrets

Secrets for release and deployment:

• GHCR_USER (Github Container Registry username)
• GHCR_TOKEN (Github Container Registry token)

Create a personal access token on GitHub.

Secrets for deployment:

• SSH_HOST (deployment host)
• SSH_USER (deployment user)
• SSH_KEY (private key)

Environment secrets

Secrets for deployment:

• SECRET_KEY_BASE (application secret)

• ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_PRIMARY_KEY (encryption secret)

• ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_DETERMINISTIC_KEY (encryption secret)

• ACTIVE_RECORD_ENCRYPTION_KEY_DERIVATION_SALT (encryption secret)

• PG_HOST (PostgreSQL host)

• PG_USER (database username)

• PG_PASSWORD (database password)

• APP_HOST (application hostname)

• APP_EMAIL (application email)

• ADMIN_EMAIL (administrator account email)

• ADMIN_PASSWORD (administrator account password)

• POSTGRES_PASSWORD (postgres user password, only for postgres container)

When adding more application environment variables, do not forget to add them in the following files, and on GitHub as environment secrets:

• .development.env
• .github/workflows/cd.yml
• ops/compose.yml

Releasing

Update the changelog and bump the version in lib/rsync_ui/version.rb. Create a tag for the version and push it to Github. A Docker image will automatically be built and pushed to the registry.

nano lib/rsync_ui/version.rb
git add lib/rsync_ui/version.rb
git commit -m "Bump version to v1.0.0"
git tag v1.0.0
git push origin master
git push origin v1.0.0

License

Copyright 2026 Florian Dejonckheere