Kevin,
FWIW, I've had to do something like this several times, in different setups
(invariably Mac-Mac, but the principles should be the same on a mixed
environment). My suggestions:
- if you've got a small number of files changing, and the files are
small, then something like you're proposing will work; or as others have
said there are plenty of existing solutions. The job is made easier if you
can make the central machine into a server, and simply mount the share on
client machines.
- if you've got a very large number of files (we've worked with 5,000 -
15,000 files) and some of them reasonably large (our setups involve a fair
number >1MB, a small number in the 20-30MB range, and usually one or two
>100MB) then I've yet to find any of these solutions that work (especially if
the clients are likely to all check in around the same time). We've had to
patch around using AppleScript solutions to stagger the launches, and
partition the updates.
However, we did finally find an excellent solution for the most recent such
installation we've done. It's not free, but in time saved and reliability
it quickly pays for itself over custom development or any of the free or
shareware options we've tried in the past.
This was to use Retrospect <www.dantz.com> - generally a backup software,
but it has mirror options. You put Retrospect on your central machine,
install the client s/w on each of the clients; then you can set up Retro
scripts to 'mirror' folders on the central machine to folders on the
clients. You can make one big script or little ones; schedule them
automatically, or run them manually, or if you need more unusual control,
and if the Retrospect server is on a Mac, then you can AppleScript that.
You don't have to maintain catalogues, because the Retro s/w takes care of
working out what's new and changed. This is the solution we've used for our
most recent installation, which is at the upper end of the scale in terms of
number and size of files, and it works much faster than any other solution
we've tried, and it has proven completely reliable (so far :-).
Hope this helps,
Ben Rubinstein | Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cognitive Applications Ltd | Phone: +44 (0)1273-821600
http://www.cogapp.com | Fax : +44 (0)1273-728866
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