syncthing / syncthing/syncthing

Support non-recursive scans for directory change notification events

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#6,572 9 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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enhancement
Dominant language
Go
Stars
88.8k
Forks
5.5k
Avg merge
2d 10h
Merged PRs (30d)
5

Description

On Windows, for folders that have many files, a file change can trigger a scan which takes an inordinate amount of time to complete. Until the scan completes, no further syncs occur.

The issue is believed to be caused by Syncthings implementation whereby an entire recursive directory scan is performed for any file change. Unlike Linux implementation, which notifies for individual file changes, Windows notifies directory changes. Apparently, this difference causes the inefficient scan.

More info here:
Windows 10 Sync Delayed

The fix is to find a way in which only the changed directory is scanned, not all subdirectories.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

No files or tests are named. Start by locating the Windows directory-change notification handling and the recursive scan path, then compare their behavior with the Linux implementation. Done means a Windows change scans only the changed directory rather than all subdirectories, without preventing later syncs.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
go
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
38/100

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