Long live the Atom Watcher

Improvements for Windows and Linux users:

• The new local watcher is now the default watcher. It should bring better
  performance in local changes analysis.
• We found a bug in the synchronisation process of directories that could lead
  to missed updates. We have not seen any reports of it but the mechanism has
  been fixed anyway.
• We updated one of our main dependencies, Electron, to its 2.x version. We are
  still not using the latest version but this one brings us back support from
  the Electron team and security fixes. Other updates will come in the following
  releases.

Improvements for Windows users:

• Files and folders named like a volume (e.g. C:) and at the root of the folder
  watched by Cozy Desktop could lead to an infinite loop if they or any of their
  children were ever modified. Those are now handled properly and won't be
  ignored either.

There are some known issues that we'll tackle in the next releases:

• On Windows, moving a tree of directories and files to a destination that
  shares part of this tree (e.g. src/dir/subdir/file → dst/dir/subdir/file)
  and overwriting the destinations will result in conflicts being created for
  the overwritten files.
• On Windows, the synchronisation of a remote move stopped before it's been
  applied on the local system will won't be resumed when restarting the client.
• On Linux, some movements done while the client was stopped won't be correctly
  detected and handled when starting the client.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Case-only renaming on Windows

Improvements for Windows users:

• Changing only the case of a file/directory name now works as expected when
  using the new watcher.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Following movements on Windows

Improvements for Windows and Linux users:

• Successive moves (e.g. A → B → C → D) are now correctly applied (i.e. A → D)
  with the new local watcher.
• The introduction of the new local watcher brought a performance regression
  during the initial Cozy directory scan. We ported an optimisation we had in
  the previous watcher to the new one which should make the initial scan phase
  about 3x faster.
• We found a bug in the synchronisation process of directories that could lead
  to missed updates. We have not seen any reports of it but the mechanism has
  been fixed anyway.
• We updated one of our main dependencies, Electron, to its 2.x version. We are
  still not using the latest version but this one brings us back support from
  the Electron team and security fixes. Other updates will come in the following
  releases.

Improvements for Windows users:

• Moves from a directory that has just been moved to a path outside this
  directory will now be correctly detected and applied with the new local
  watcher.

There are some known issues that we'll tackle in the next releases:

• On Windows, moving a tree of directories and files to a destination that
  shares part of this tree (e.g. src/dir/subdir/file → dst/dir/subdir/file)
  and overwriting the destinations will result in conflicts being created for
  the overwritten files.
• On Windows, the synchronisation of a remote move stopped before it's been
  applied on the local system will won't be resumed when restarting the client.
• On Linux, some movements done while the client was stopped won't be correctly
  detected and handled when starting the client.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Battle testing the new local watcher

Improvements for Windows and Linux users:

• The new local watcher is now the default watcher. It should bring better
  performance in local changes analysis.

Improvements for Windows users:

• Files and folders named like a volume (e.g. C:) and at the root of the folder
  watched by Cozy Desktop could lead to an infinite loop if they or any of their
  children were ever modified. Those are now handled properly and won't be
  ignored either.

There are some known issues that we'll tackle in the next releases:

• On Windows, moving the child of a moved directory won't be handled properly.
• On Windows, moving a tree of directories and files to a destination that
  shares part of this tree (e.g. src/dir/subdir/file → dst/dir/subdir/file)
  and overwriting the destinations will result in conflicts being created for
  the overwritten files.
• On Windows, the synchronisation of a remote move stopped before it's been
  applied on the local system won't be resumed when restarting the client.
• On Linux, some movements done while the client was stopped won't be correctly
  detected and handled when starting the client.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Red pill or blue pill?

Improvements for Windows and Linux users:

• The watcher type used (i.e. atom or chokidar) can now be chosen via the config
  file. This means the new watcher will be testable easily with any version of
  the app starting from now.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Testing new watcher on Windows & GNU/Linux

Improvements for all users:

• Fixed a race condition case were a sharing could be disabled when a folder
  was moved locally while another one was added remotely to the same
  destination.

Improvements for Windows and Linux users:

• The right path separator is now used while squashing successive events (e.g.
  file added or updated, then moved immediately) in the new watcher.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Keeping track of versions can be hard

Improvements for all users:

• We've improved the way we handle the revision of newly detected documents that
  are created at paths that have already been synchronised in the past. This was
  a potential source of conflicts were you to modify the content of such file.
• When moving a folder locally then quickly changing the content of a subfile
  on the same device, the file content may not be updated in the Cozy in some
  cases. Everything should now work as expected.
• We keep track of the changes made to documents to synchronise either with the
  remote Cozy or the local filesystem using version numbers for each side of the
  synchronisation. When moving a document, be it either a directory or a file,
  on the local filesystem as part of its parent directory move, the new local
  version number would be false, resulting in a possible desynchronisation of
  content updates.
  We now make sure both the local and remote version numbers get reset in
  this situation so future updates will be synchronised in the right direction.
• We've modified the way we handle child documents updates so everything gets
  synchronised, even if a child update occurs quickly after its parent directory
  has been renamed.
• We found out that moving a file or a directory to a path that has already been
  used in the past then deleted could lead to irrelevant version numbers for the
  new document and in the end to unnecessary conflicts.
  We now correct our version numbers when this situation happens so future
  updates to the document are handled correctly.

Improvements for contributors:

• The developer documentation's design section has been updated with the reasons
  that led to the decision to create a new local watcher and diagrams explaining
  how it works on Windows and Linux.

See also known issues.

Happy syncing!

Subdirectory and child file updates and movements

Improvements for all users:

• We've modified the way we handle child documents updates so everything gets
  synchronised, even if a child update occurs quickly after its parent directory
  has been renamed.
• We found out that moving a file or a directory to a path that has already been
  used in the path then deleted could lead to irrelevant version numbers for the
  new document and in the end to unnecessary conflicts.
  We now correct our version numbers when this situation happens so future
  updates to the document are handled correctly.

Happy syncing!

Reset version numbers on document move

Improvements for all users:

• We keep track of the changes made to documents to synchronise either with the
  remote Cozy or the local filesystem using version numbers for each side of the
  synchronisation. When moving a document, be it either a directory or a file,
  on the local filesystem as part of its parent directory move, the new local
  version number would be false, resulting in a possible desynchronisation of
  content updates.
  We now make sure both the local and remote version numbers get resetted in
  this situation so future updates will be synchronised in the right direction.

Happy syncing!

Fix local dir move with quick subfile update

Improvements for all users:

• When moving a folder locally then quickly changing the content of a subfile
  on the same device, the file content may not be updated in the Cozy in some
  cases. Everything should now work as expected.

Notice for Windows & GNU/Linux users:

• This beta release uses the old watcher implementation. The new one is only
  used by default in alpha releases. We're still actively testing and
  improving it to make it the default in stable releases!

Happy syncing!