Conflux

File sync for Linux: a background daemon, a CLI to control it and a GNOME app to set it up.

conflux keeps local directories in step with a WebDAV server (Nextcloud and friends), a Git repository, or another directory on disk, or keeps a git clone you already have up to date by committing, fetching, rebasing and pushing it for you. You choose when each group syncs and how much of the tree it owns, from a read-only pull of tracked dotfiles to a full 1:1 mirror. One conflux binary is both the daemon and the CLI that controls it; Conflux, the optional GNOME app, shows and edits the same setup.

conflux is developed in my free time. If it keeps your files in order, you can support its development:

Features

• Sync folders with a WebDAV server (Nextcloud and others), a Git repository or another directory, such as a backup disk.
• Keep a git clone you already have up to date: conflux commits, fetches, rebases and pushes it for you.
• Sync on local edits, on a timer or by hand, and pull changes from your other machines on an interval.
• Choose how much of a tree each sync owns: from a read-only pull of a few dotfiles to a full two-way mirror.
• Safe by default: nothing is deleted unless you allow it, a file changed on both sides keeps both versions, and a dry run shows what a sync would do.
• One config for several machines: profiles decide which syncs each one runs.
• Runs as a systemd service, for your user or the whole system, controlled with the conflux CLI.
• The Conflux app shows and edits the syncs, remotes and daemons of your user and of the system.

All of what conflux does, with examples and every option, is described in FEATURES.md. Once installed, man conflux describes the commands and man 5 conflux the config file.

Install

conflux comes as two packages: conflux, the daemon and CLI, and conflux-gtk, the optional app (it needs conflux and libadwaita 1.7 or newer; its prebuilt packages, GNOME 49 or newer).

Arch Linux and derivatives: install from the AUR with an AUR helper:

yay -S conflux conflux-gtk

These build the latest release from source; conflux-bin and conflux-gtk-bin install the prebuilt release instead, and conflux-git and conflux-gtk-git build the latest commit.

Other distributions: download the packages from the latest release:

# Ubuntu 26.04 and newer (conflux also for arm64)
sudo apt install ./conflux_<version>_amd64.deb ./conflux-gtk_<version>_amd64.deb

# Any distribution: the daemon and CLI (x86_64 or aarch64), and the app (x86_64),
# as files to unpack into /
sudo tar -xzf conflux-v<version>-x86_64-linux.tar.gz --strip-components=1 -C /
sudo tar -xzf conflux-gtk-<version>-x86_64.tar.gz -C /
sudo systemd-sysusers conflux.conf   # the system daemon's user

# Flatpak: the app alone, for your own syncs and daemons (the daemon still comes
# from the conflux package or the tarball)
flatpak install --user dev.aperte.Conflux.flatpak

Fedora RPMs are built from packaging/rpm/conflux.spec (see Building packages).

From source

./install.sh install builds and installs the daemon and CLI into your home directory: the binary in ~/.local/bin, its man pages in ~/.local/share/man, config.example.toml as your starter config in ~/.config/conflux/, and systemd user units. Add --no-build to reuse an existing target/release/conflux.

Add --system (as root) to install system-wide instead — binary in /usr/local/bin, man pages in /usr/local/share/man, config in /etc/conflux/, systemd system units, running as a dedicated conflux user:

./install.sh install                 # user install
sudo ./install.sh install --system   # system-wide

Uninstall the same way you installed, adding --purge to also drop the config, state, and system user:

./install.sh uninstall [--system] [--purge]

The app installs with make, after the daemon. It needs Rust 1.92 or newer, GTK 4, libadwaita 1.7 or newer, blueprint-compiler and GLib's glib-compile-resources:

make build-gtk PREFIX=/usr/local && sudo make install-gtk PREFIX=/usr/local

Then configure and run it.

Building packages

The root Makefile installs each package's files into a tree (install-cli, install-gtk, install-flatpak), and every package is made from it: scripts/deb.sh makes the .deb packages, packaging/flatpak/ holds the Flatpak manifest, and packaging/rpm/conflux.spec builds conflux and conflux-gtk as RPMs; COPR builds them with .copr/Makefile, which also works locally:

make -f .copr/Makefile srpm outdir=$PWD/target/rpm

Every push is checked and packaged by CI; releases are made by the manual Release workflow and listed in the changelog.

Getting started

conflux reads one TOML file: ~/.config/conflux/config.toml for your user, /etc/conflux/config.toml for the system. Start from config.example.toml, which lists every option at its default, or from the examples; or open the Conflux app, which creates and edits it for you. Check it before starting the daemon:

conflux config validate

Then enable the daemon, for your user or the system, the default profile or a named one:

systemctl --user enable --now conflux            # your user, default profile
systemctl --user enable --now conflux@desktop    # your user, profile "desktop"
sudo systemctl enable --now conflux              # the system

The daemon syncs every group once as soon as it starts, so point a new group at real data only once you are sure of it.

conflux status shows each sync and its last run, conflux sync runs them now and conflux sync -n shows what a sync would change; see man conflux or FEATURES.md for the rest.

Roadmap

Planned work, including the rest of the GTK app, is tracked in docs/ROADMAP.md. Changes in each release are listed in docs/CHANGELOG.md.