Update (2012/01/11)

iDisk should soon disapear. This entry is mainly obsolescent now.

Update (2009/10/28)

I updated my script which is now incremental. Since the writing of this article, Apple(c) had made many efforts about the bandwith of its European servers.

WebDav terror

I live in France and iDisk upload is just terrible. Upload speed remind me the old 56k modem. Most operations such as list the content of a directory take at least 30 seconds (for 15 elements). Renaming a directory fail most of time.

Apple(c) use a WebDav server to host files. It works on port 80 (like http). I realized WebDav via https work better (2 to 3 times faster with far less errors). But even https is too slow.

I upload from my Mac and sometimes from an Ubuntu PC (iDisk mounted with webdavfs).

Synchronize safely the website

Here is the script I use in order to synchronize my website with maximum safety. It try each operations until it works.

The idea are:

• synchronize to a temporary folder then swap the name therefore the website isn’t accessible only during the swap time. It takes only the time of two rename.
• reiterate all operations until they work (for example, renaming).

For now I use rsync which in fact is no more efficient than a simple cp with WebDav. And I should use a method to keep track of elements who have changed. before the publication.

In fact when I’m on a Mac, I use Transmit which is very cool and far more efficient than the Finder to synchronize files. After the synchronization, I swap the directories.

My script take a -s option in order to make only the swap option. It also take a -a in order to put the new index.html which should point to the new homepage (not the iWeb one).

In order to keep this script working for you, just modify the username by yours (the value of the mobileMeUser).

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# Script synchronisant le site sur me.com
# normalement, le site est indisponible le moins de temps possible
# le temps de deux renommages de répertoire

mobileMeUser="yann.esposito"
siteName="siteName"

# Depending of my hostname the 
if [[ $(hostname) == 'ubuntu' ]]; then
    iDisk='/mnt/iDisk'
else
    iDisk="/Volumes/$mobileMeUser"
fi

root=$HOME/Sites/$siteName
destRep=$iDisk/Web/Sites/$siteName

[[ ! -d $root ]] && { 
    print -- "$root n'existe pas ; vérifiez la conf" >&2; 
    exit 1 
}

[[ ! -d $destRep ]] && { 
    print -- "$destRep n'existe pas, veuillez remonter le FS" >&2; 
    exit 1 
}

if [[ $1 == '-h' ]]; then
    print -- "usage: $0:h [-h|-a|-s]"
    print -- "  -a sychronise aussi l'index"
    print -- "  -h affiche l'aide"
    print -- "  -s swappe simplement les répertoires"
fi

if [[ $1 == '-a' ]]; then
    print -- "Synchronisation de l'index (${destRep:h})"
    rsync -av $root/index.html ${destRep:h}/index.html
fi

print -- "Root = $root"
print -- "Dest = $destRep"

if [[ ! $1 = '-s' ]]; then
    [[ ! -d $destRep.tmp ]] && mkdir $destRep.tmp
    print -P -- "%B[Sync => tmp]%b"
    result=1
    essai=1
    while (( $result > 0 )); do
        rsync -arv $root/Scratch/ $destRep.tmp
        result=$?
        if (( $result > 0 )); then
            print -P -- "%BEchec du rsync%b (essai n°$essai)" >&2
        fi
        ((essai++))
    done
fi

# SWAP
print -P -- "%B[Swap des Répertoires (tmp <=> target)]%b"
essai=1
while [[ -e $destRep.old ]]; do
    print -n -- "suppression de $destRep.old"
    if ((essai>1)); then 
        print " (essai n°$essai)"
    else
        print
    fi
    ((essai++))
    \rm -rf $destRep.old
done

print -- "  renommage du repertoire sandard vers le .old"
essai=1
while [[ -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep $destRep.old 
    (($?)) && print -- "Echec du renommage (essai n°$essai)" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -- "  renommage du repertoire tmp (nouveau) vers le standard"
print -P -- "  %BSite Indisponible%b $(date)"
essai=1
while [[ ! -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep.tmp $destRep
    (($?)) && print -P -- "%B[Site Indisponible]%b(essai n°$essai) Echec du renommage (mv $destRep.tmp $destRep)" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -P -- "\t===\t%BSITE DISPONIBLE%b\t==="

print -- "  renommage du repertoire old vers le tmp"
essai=1
while [[ ! -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep.old $destRep.tmp
    (($?)) && print -P -- "Echec du renommage n°$essai" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -P -- "  publication terminée"

#!/usr/bin/env zsh

# Author: Yann Esposito
#   Mail: yann.esposito@gmail.com
# Synchronize with "mobileMe" iDisk account.

mobileMeUser="firstname.lastname"
siteName="siteName"

# Depending of my hostname the 
if [[ $(hostname) == 'ubuntu' ]]; then
    iDisk='/mnt/iDisk'
else
    iDisk="/Volumes/$mobileMeUser"
fi

root=$HOME/Sites/$siteName
destRep=$iDisk/Web/Sites/$siteName

[[ ! -d $root ]] && { 
    print -- "$root does not exist ; please verify the configuration ($0)" >&2; 
    exit 1 
}

[[ ! -d $destRep ]] && { 
    print -- "$destRep does not exist, please mount the filesystem" >&2; 
    exit 1 
}

if [[ $1 == '-h' ]]; then
    print -- "usage: $0:h [-h|-a|-s]"
    print -- "  -a sychronize primary index"
    print -- "  -h show this help"
    print -- "  -s only swap directories"
fi

if [[ $1 == '-a' ]]; then
    print -- "Index synchronisation (${destRep:h})"
    rsync -av $root/index.html ${destRep:h}/index.html
fi

print -- "Root = $root"
print -- "Dest = $destRep"

if [[ ! $1 = '-s' ]]; then
    [[ ! -d $destRep.tmp ]] && mkdir $destRep.tmp
    print -P -- "%B[Sync => tmp]%b"
    result=1
    essai=1
    while (( $result > 0 )); do
        rsync -arv $root/Scratch/ $destRep.tmp
        result=$?
        if (( $result > 0 )); then
            print -P -- "%Brsync failed%b (try n°$essai)" >&2
        fi
        ((essai++))
    done
fi

# SWAP
print -P -- "%B[Directory Swap (tmp <=> target)]%b"
essai=1
while [[ -e $destRep.old ]]; do
    print -n -- "remove $destRep.old"
    if ((essai>1)); then 
        print " (try n°$essai)"
    else
        print
    fi
    ((essai++))
    \rm -rf $destRep.old
done

print -- "  renommage du repertoire sandard vers le .old"
essai=1
while [[ -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep $destRep.old 
    (($?)) && print -- "Failed to rename (try n°$essai)" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -- "  renaming folder tmp (new) to the standard one"
print -P -- "  %BThe WebSite isn't working%b $(date)"
essai=1
while [[ ! -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep.tmp $destRep
    (($?)) && print -P -- "%B[WebSite not working]%b(try n°$essai) Failed to rename (mv $destRep.tmp $destRep)" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -P -- "\t===\t%BWEBSITE SHOULD WORK NOW%b\t==="

print -- "  rename old folder to tmp folder"
essai=1
while [[ ! -e $destRep ]]; do
    mv $destRep.old $destRep.tmp
    (($?)) && print -P -- "Failed to rename n°$essai" >&2
    ((essai++))
done

print -P -- "  Publish terminated"