Safe Mode

Specifying the command line option "-n" or setting the configuration variable NoAction will cause SyncDat to scan the directories and report its intentions without actually making any changes.

Failure to use SyncDat correctly can result in extreme data loss!

Testing with safe mode is strongly recommended if you have not previously synchronized two directories, you are unsure of their integrity, the paths have been changed, or if you have changed modes.

Example 1: When attempting to copy a local directory of files to an empty remote directory, specifying "-r" instead of "-l" would delete all of the local files.

The -D (NoDelete) option, which ignores deletion actions but performs file transfers, is not an adequate substitute for Safe Mode as critical files could still be overwritten.

Example 2: Specifying a remote directory as "server:/" instead of "server:" would attempt to access the root hard-drive instead of the user's home folder.

When combined with "-v" or Verbose, SyncDat will list each action that it would have performed.  Otherwise it will report only errors and a summary of proposed changes.