Removing archive files

Occasionally, unison will complain that the "archive files" on synchronizing hosts are missing or corrupt. To keep track of changes, unison keeps a file starting with ar in the ".unison" directory on each host doing a sync. These files must sometimes be deleted after a failed sync. The following is a brief description of how to do so.

Warning

If a file has changed on two different machines since the last successful sync, the older file will always be overwritten by the newer file. There are backups that can restore old files, but please be aware of this quirk.

Location of archive files

You may receive an email or warning at some point like the following:

Fatal error: Warning: inconsistent state.  
The archive file is missing on some hosts.
For safety, the remaining copies should be deleted.
  Archive ar23d295a89eb79721629cac507ccf372e on host ogre is MISSING
  Archive ar37b0b1990a2955027230a7aac00bfa89 on host birch should be DELETED
Please delete archive files as appropriate and try again.

• In Windows, this file is usually found at C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\.unison.
• On ogre and birch archive files are under /home/dme/.unison.
• If you log into ogre or birch with Filezilla, the default directory should already be /home/dme, so the files will be in the .unison directory.

Removing archive files

• To remove the archive file from your Windows machine, simply navigate to the above directory and delete all the files starting with ar.
• To remove the archive files from birch or ogre, use the Filezilla client to connect with the following parameters:
  • Host: birch.wayzata.egeland.net or ogre.tonka.egeland.net
  • Username: dme
  • Password: same as your tonka samba password
  • Port: 22
• Once you login, you will find the archive files in the .unison directory as mentioned above. Delete only the archive file indicated by the unison error message. The other archive files may be used for other syncs between different machines.

Preventing sync errors

Always logoff workstations when doing a sync (or at the end of the day), as writing to the disk during a sync can cause conflicts.