Rsynko

Rsynko is a meaning-first manager for path transfers. A transfer joins two ends — a folder or a file, here or on another machine — and is rehearsed before it is performed. rsync performs it, and the manager never learns what rsync is: what it knows is the command, which it states before it runs it.

A submitted line names a path unless a source recognizes it as its own, so /home/dev/music, nas.local:/srv/data, and rsync://nas.local/data are all transfers.

Retrieval is the additional source composed onto that: media from Youtube and X is downloaded the same way a path is transferred, from the same list. Thanks to yt-dlp, from which the extraction algorithm for Youtube and X downloads is taken.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ rsynko  0.1.0                                                                                    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌ Transfers (3) ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│▸ ● ██▏       28% First fetched title                Downloading  18.2 MiB / 63.0 MiB  2.0 MiB/s  │
│  ● ████████ 100% Second fetched title               Complete     —                               │
│  ○            0% A portable video title             Ready        —                               │
│                                                                                                  │
│                                                                                                  │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌ Actions ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│[↑↓] Select  [Enter] Details  [a] Add  [Space] Pause  [Del] Remove  [Ctrl+Q] Quit                 │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Everything the manager states — the details page, the formats a source offers, what a transfer would change, the command it runs — is in rsynko-manager.

Important

Rsynko is an extendable specification. A source is added by stating what it means, and an interpreter by stating how it is carried out; neither edits the other, and neither has to be foreseen. That is the expression problem gone rather than managed — and once it is gone, compositions that were not imaginable before become ordinary. Retrieval composed onto transfers, without either knowing about the other, is the first one.

⚙️ Usage

Interactive terminals open a collection/detail manager. Command-line arguments pre-populate its collection; press a to add more and Space on each source to run it. Redirected output remains line-oriented and acts on each supplied source immediately.

Ctrl+Q and Ctrl+C both quit, and both stop what is running before they do, so nothing is left behind either way. Ctrl+C has to be pressed twice, quickly, so hitting it by accident quits nothing. Escape navigates back and never quits.

rsynko
rsynko /home/dev/photos/2026
rsynko 'backup@nas.local:/volume1/photos  /home/dev/photos'
rsynko 'fixture://single-video'
rsynko 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNQXAC9IVRw'
rsynko 'https://x.com/somebody/status/1234567890123456789'

📦 Installation

Note

Transferring a path needs rsync on the PATH, and a remote endpoint needs ssh the way rsync itself does. Retrieving a web address needs nothing but the executable.

Take the built binary. Every push builds rsynko-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz beside its .sha256, and a tagged v* push attaches both to a release — the newest one is always at releases/latest. Unpack it and put rsynko wherever the PATH reaches:

tar -xzf rsynko-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
install -Dm755 rsynko-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/rsynko ~/.local/bin/rsynko

Build it. With a Rust toolchain, just install states the same executable on the PATH, built with the release profile:

just install                          # cargo install --path crates/rsynko
cargo build --release                 # target/release/rsynko, to place by hand
cargo run -- /home/dev/photos         # without installing anything

📖 Specifications

What something means, with no interpreter in it. These sit at the top level of the repository.

Crate		States
rsynko-manager		The collection, its pages, and its queue
rsynko-ui		Keys, menus, and pages, with nothing drawing them
rsynko-session		What is running, and one pass of attention
rsynko-rsync		Path transfers and what one would change
rsynko-media		Media: described, chosen, produced, named
rsynko-download		Retrieval of one resource, published atomically
rsynko-yt		Youtube as a special case of retrieval
rsynko-x		What a public tweet carries, and how to ask

🔌 Interpretations

What a library makes of a specification. Each lives under crates/ and is named for the choice it makes.

Crate		Interprets it as
rsynko		the executable, composing the rest
rsynko-memory		in-memory values the laws run against
rsynko-process		an operating-system process running rsync
rsynko-reqwest		Reqwest requests and published files
rsynko-ratatui		a terminal screen, and keys read back

🔮 Wishlist

• Better text editing in the input, output, and add-sources editors
• Scrolling in the collection and the report, so a long list is not cut to the pane
• A selectable folder filter per transfer, stated in rsync's own filter-file language
• Every file a tweet carries, rather than one of them — Take::Everything and Take::Images are stated in rsynko-x and nothing consumes them yet
• Youtube's adaptive streams taken together: signature deciphering, proof-of-origin tokens, and a merge
• A collection remembered between runs
• Binaries beyond x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu

🧠 Design

Read DENOTATIONAL_DESIGN.md for semantic authority and ARCHITECTURE.md for dependency and interpretation boundaries before adding implementation machinery.

📤 Publication

Packages are licensed under MIT. Publish them in this order, allowing the crates.io index to update between dependent packages:

1. rsynko-download, rsynko-session, and rsynko-x in any order
2. rsynko-media
3. rsynko-manager
4. rsynko-rsync and rsynko-ui in any order
5. rsynko-yt
6. rsynko-memory
7. rsynko-process, rsynko-reqwest, and rsynko-ratatui in any order
8. rsynko

Cargo cannot package a later step against crates.io until the preceding version is available there.

Each crate carries its own version, so a release states only the crates that changed: just release-crate <crate> <level> for one, just release <level> for the whole workspace. Every release tags <crate>-v<version>, and rsynko-v<version> is what builds and attaches the executable.

📄 License

MIT license