Yandex.Disk

Escale can operate with the Yandex.Disk WebDAV server at webdav.yandex.ru.

If not already done, install Escale as detailled elsewhere:

$ pip install --user escale

or:

$ git clone https://github.com/francoislaurent/escale
$ cd escale
$ pip install --user .

Run the Escale configuration wizard in a terminal:

$ escale -i

You may run into a license acceptance step that requires to answer two yes-no questions. You must accept the terms of the license if you want to use Escale.

Do you have knowledge of the CeCILL-C license and accept its terms? [NO/yes] yes
Acceptance stored in file: '$HOME/.config/escale/acceptance'

Note

User-supplied text is shown in bold characters.

Carriage returns are indicated by <enter>.

The configuration wizard offers an expert mode and a simplified mode.

The simplified mode is considered self-explanatory and most users may safely follow the steps of this mode.

This tutorial covers the expert mode.

Run in simplified mode: [Y/n] n <enter>

If you set Escale up for the first time, you will first be requested the path of the folder you want to synchronize:

Editing configuration file '$HOME/.config/escale/escale.conf'
Path of your local repository (required): ~/Shared Files <enter>

where ~/Shared Files is the folder which content will be synchronized in this example.

If the directory you specify does not exist, Escale will make it for you.

You have to choose a name for the directory that will accommodate the relay repository. Here we choose Escale Repository as a name:

Is the relay repository locally mounted in the file system? [N/y] <enter>
Request help with '?'
Address of the relay repository (required): https://webdav.yandex.ru/Escale Repository <enter>

Note that you will need to manually make this directory, for example from the web interface to your Yandex.Disk space.

You will have to choose a name for the synchronized repository and a client name.

The repository name - or configuration section name - should be different from a local repository to another, on your local host.

The client name should be different from a client to another, for a given relay repository. The default client name is the hostname of your local host.

Choose a name for this configuration section.
Prefer ascii names.
Section name (required): my-first-repository <enter>
Request help with '?'
Client name: [poincare] <enter>

The remote service may request a username and password.

If the credentials are available in a file, leave the following field empty.
Authentification username: [] my-username <enter>
Password: [] <type password> <enter>
Writing new credential file '$HOME/.config/escale/my-first-repository.credential'

Important

Passwords and credential files are private and should not be sent in plain emails. Consider encrypted emails or services like onetimesecret.com.

If you want to encrypt the data before they are sent to the relay storage, you will need to share a same encryption key between all the clients that synchronize over the same relay repository.

The first client to be set up can generate a key. This key will be available in a file that can be copied into the other clients.

The first client would perform the following steps:

Encryption: [on] <enter>
Passphrase filename [my-first-repository.passphrase]: <enter>
'$HOME/.config/escale/my-first-repository.passphrase' file does not exist yet
Generate a new key? [Y/n] <enter>
        key: b'_0Uozrh6S6RJ0ybOlJvZWreGFl6NffMUbU8xGvZ5QJw='

while the others would get a copy of the generated file - here called x.passphrase - and perform the following steps:

Encryption: [on] <enter>
Passphrase filename [my-first-repository.passphrase]: <enter>

In the above example, the my-first-repository.passphrase file is expected to be in the current directory or the configuration directory. You can alternatively specify a filepath.

Note

A passphrase file is not a text file.

Especially, the passphrase stored in it should not be followed by a newline or carriage return character, otherwise these trailing characters would be included in the passphrase.

Important

Passphrases are private and should not be sent in plain emails. Consider encrypted emails or services like onetimesecret.com.

Pay special attention not to introduce newline or carriage return while editing a passphrase file.

You are then requested to specify in which mode synchronize should operate:

Synchronization mode can be 'upload', 'download', 'shared' or 'conservative'
Request help with '?'
Which mode for this client? [shared] <enter>

More information about synchronization modes can be found in this page.

Especially, if you want to implement a simple backup setup, you may have two clients:

  • the one that accommodates the active data will be set in upload mode,
  • the other one that accommodates the backup copy will be set in download mode.

The next few steps are straightforward:

Refresh interval (in seconds): [10] <enter>
Request help with '?'
Disk quota: [] 1 <enter>

Setting disk quota to 1 will make Escale use no more than one gigabyte in your Dropbox space.

Note that larger files will not be transferred due to insufficient space, as long as Escale does not feature automatic split-and-recombine mechanics. This value should be large enough so that your files can be piped through. It can be arbitrarily large but will usually be smaller that the available storage space.

Exit the configuration wizard:

Do you want to add/edit another section? [N/y] <enter>

Your client is ready and can be launched with:

$ escale

or as a daemon:

$ escale -d

You can make your terminal continuously flush the logs with:

$ tail -f ~/.config/escale/escale.log