rsync stuff to a different directory on file changes (Mac OS X)

hook-line-and-syncer

#!/bin/bash
# Get fswatch:  brew install fswatch

EXCLUDES_FILE="/tmp/syncer-excludes.txt"
SOURCES=( "/path/to/folder/to/watch" )
EXCLUDES=(
        "*.vmwarevm"
        ".DS_Store"
        "Icon\r"
        ".dropbox"
        ".dropbox.attr"
)

DEST="/path/to/destination/folder"

printf -- '%s\n' "${EXCLUDES[@]}" > ${EXCLUDES_FILE}

for SOURCE in ${SOURCES[@]}; do
  fswatch "${SOURCE}" "echo \"`date +%H:%M:%S`: Changes detected in ${SOURCE}; syncing to ${DEST}\" && /usr/local/bin/rsync -ru --stats --links --copy-unsafe-links --delete --exclude-from=${EXCLUDES_FILE} \"${SOURCE}\" \"${DEST}\"" &
done

wait ${!}

org.hiller.syncer.plist

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Debug</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>org.hiller.syncer</string>
        <key>LowPriorityIO</key>
        <true/>
        <key>Program</key>
        <string>/path/to/hook-line-and-syncer</string>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
        <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
        <string>/usr/local/var/log/hook-line-and-syncer.log</string>
        <key>StandardOutPath</key>
        <string>/usr/local/var/log/hook-line-and-syncer.log</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Update the plist to be the path to the script. You can use launchctl load /path/to/org.hiller.syncer.plist to automatically run this script at boot.

(also update whatever path(s) you want watched, and your destination folder in the bash script)

I use this to work outside of Dropbox (which has case-sensitivity problems) then rsync my crap into the Dropbox dir.