BorgBackup is a deduplicating backup system that includes support for optional compression and encryption. A single Borg repository can store multiple archives, with the archives representing different folders, different points in time, different machines, or any combination thereof. Borg's deduplication is based on variable-length file chunking, with only chunks that aren't already present in a...

With the proliferation of services to store files online (e.g. Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.) has come a proliferation of client software for interacting with those services. Cyberduck is a file manager that supports the most popular file storage services. It also supports common protocols like FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV. In addition, Cyberduck can make use of an external editor to provide...

Double Commander is a cross platform dual-pane file manager inspired by the Windows-only Total Commander. In addition to allowing users to move files between the two directories displayed in its two panes, Double Commander can also compare the contents of those directories. It can be set either to highlight files that differ or those that are identical. For files that differ, Double Commander...

Go!Zilla is a popular download manager with a number of handy features. These include the ability to stop downloads and then resume them at any time and the option to queue multiple files and then download them in succession so as not to freeze up your bandwidth. Go!Zilla will also begin downloading automatically at specified times and even turn off your computer once the job is done. An...

Grsync is a graphical front-end to the venerable rsync command-line folder synchronization tool. Grsync is able to efficiently propagate changes between two copies of a folder by sending only the differences. It can be used both on local folders or over the internet. Grsync provides a user-friendly point-and-click interface to rsync for users that are less fond of using a shell. Sample uses for...

Meld is a graphical tool for comparing different versions of files and folders. While it is primarily written for developers working with folders of source code, it can also be used to compare any other text-based format (such as HTML, XML, and JSON). It provides both two-way comparisons (version A vs. version B) and three-way comparisons (versions A and B against a common ancestor), along with...

Those in search of a file manager for Unix-like systems that uses a text-based user interface may enjoy Ranger, which employs the Miller columns display technique also employed in the Finder windows on macOS systems. In this three-column layout, the central column displays the current working directory, the left column displays the parent of the current directory, and the right column displays a...

Rclone is a file synchronization tool that features built-in support for several dozen cloud storage providers. These include both large providers like Amazon S3 and Microsoft OneDrive, as well as self-hosted solutions like ownCloud and NextCloud. Rclone can operate in one of three modes. In copy mode, any new or changed files are uploaded. In sync mode, Rclone makes a destination folder identical...

The classic UNIX `grep` command searches in text files for lines that match a pattern. It was named for the command in `ed` (the original UNIX text editor) that it replicated, g/re/p to perform a Global search for a Regular Expression and Print anything that matched. Ugrep extends classic grep with a number of helpful features including support for Unicode files, fast parallel search of multiple...

Unison is a cross-platform tool for synchronizing collections of files over the internet. Unison has the somewhat unique ability to handle updates to multiple copies of a file. For many file formats, it is able to determine if the updates conflict with each other. If they do not, it can create a merged file incorporating changes from both updated versions. Otherwise, it will alert the user to the...