FreeFileSync Open Source File Synchronization

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FreeFileSync User Manual:

Command Line Usage

FreeFileSync supports additional synchronization scenarios via a command line interface. To get a syntax overview, open the console, go to the directory where FreeFileSync is installed and type:
FreeFileSync -h or FreeFileSync --help

Command line syntax

1. Run a FreeFileSync batch job

In order to start synchronization in batch mode, supply the path of a ffs_batch configuration file as the first argument after the FreeFileSync executable:
FreeFileSync "D:\Backup Projects.ffs_batch"

After synchronization one of the following status codes is returned:
Exit Codes
0   Synchronization completed successfully
1   Synchronization completed with warnings
2   Synchronization completed with errors
3   Synchronization was aborted

You can evaluate these codes from a script (e.g. a cmd or bat file on Windows) and check if synchronization completed successfully:
"C:\Program Files\FreeFileSync\FreeFileSync.exe" "D:\Backup Projects.ffs_batch"
if not %errorlevel% == 0 (
  ::if return code is 1 or greater, something went wrong, add special treatment here
  echo Errors occurred during synchronization...
  pause & exit 1
)

Attention
If you are running the batch job unattended, make sure your script is not blocked showing a notification dialog. Consider the following options when setting up the FreeFileSync batch job:
 
  • Enable Auto-Close to skip the summary dialog after synchronization.
  • Set up error handling to Ignore errors or Cancel to stop the synchronization at the first error.

2. Start a FreeFileSync GUI configuration

If you pass a ffs_gui file, FreeFileSync will start in GUI mode and immediately start comparison (but only if all directories exist):
FreeFileSync "D:\Manual Backup.ffs_gui"

3. Customize an existing configuration

You can replace the directories of a given ffs_gui or ffs_batch configuration file by using the -DirPair parameter:
FreeFileSync "D:\Manual Backup.ffs_gui" -dirpair C:\NewSource D:\NewTarget

4. Merge multiple configurations

When more than one configuration file is provided, FreeFileSync will merge everything into a single configuration with multiple folder pairs and start in GUI mode:
FreeFileSync "D:\Manual Backup.ffs_gui" "D:\Backup Projects.ffs_batch"

5. Use a different GlobalSettings.xml file

By default, FreeFileSync uses a single GlobalSettings.xml file containing options that apply to all synchronization tasks; for examples see Expert Settings. If you want FreeFileSync to use a different settings file instead, just add the path via command line:
FreeFileSync "D:\Different GlobalSettings.xml"