Settings
Go to the Settings panel by choosing the Settings command from the Option menu, or clicking on the Settings icon on the Option drawer. The Settings panel grants several check-boxes and radio-buttons.


• Synchronization/Backup
If "Synchronization" is checked, FS will perform a synchronization, if "Backup" is checked, FS will perform a backup from the source folder (top side in the console) to the destination folder (bottom side in the console).


• Exact Sync/Backup
If checked, FS will execute an Exact Sync or an Exact Backup.
If the task is a Backup, this option tells FS to delete from the destination folder, all the items that no longer exist in the source folder. If the task is a Synchronization, this option tells FS to delete from both the source and the destination folder, all the items that "you" deleted after the last Exact Sync from the mirrored folder. The result is that the destination folder will be an exact copy of the source folder. Even if this seems to be as a simple "Finder copy", FS performs that faster than the Finder.
The Finder Copy deletes the whole destination folder, then copies the source folder entirely. If the source folder contains 1,000 files, the Finder copies 1,000 files.
Instead, for instance during a backup, FS copies only the newly created files from the source to destination (if existing in the source folder and not yet existing in the destination folder), replaces the destination files only if their related source files have the most recent modification date, and deletes from the destination folder all the items that no longer exist in the source folder. This could mean a few files only... not the full 1,000 files. Use this option with the utmost care, and better, activate the Preview option in the FS Preferences panel, so you can inspect what FS is going to do.



• Skip Invisible items
If checked, FS will skip all the invisible files/folders when copying. You should always unmark this check-box (default), so FS can copy some important invisible files. Even if you marked this check-box, FS will always copy invisible files whose filename starts with "." (e.g. .DS_Store). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• Skip Locked files
If checked, FS will skip all the locked items which cannot be copied/replaced/deleted due to their lock status. However, if a locked item can be copied, FS will copy it. Please note that FS can under no circumstances unlock a file placed on a write-protected disk (like a CD-ROM). Usually this check-box should be unmarked (default). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• Resolve alias
If checked, FS will attempt to resolve aliases considering the target items instead of the alias items themselves using the target (file or folder) name and not the name of the alias. Usually this check-box should be unmarked (default). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• Resolve Sym Links
If checked, FS will attempt to resolve Sym Links considering the target items instead of the Sym Links items themselves using the target (file or folder) name and not the name of the Sym Link. Usually this check-box should be unmarked (default). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• Skip Empty Folders
If marked, FS doesn't copy the empty folders, but if it needs to delete an empty folder (think about an Exact Backup) it can do. FS will consider a folder empty, even if it contains the hidden file .DS_Store. If you applied some filter or some excluding item, FS will consider a folder empty if containing only files to be filtered or to be excluded from the copy. Usually this check-box should be unmarked (default). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• New Items Only
If marked, FS will copy only the new files (new additions, that is items which have never been backed up) and will never replace/update the existing destination files with the most recent-updated source files. Usually this check-box should be unmarked (default). When backing up the boot disk, this check-box must be unmarked.


• Packages as Folders
A file package is a folder looking like a file in the Finder (e.g. a ".nib" file or an .app file) but indeed containing other files and folders. If you want to open a file package and see its contents, in the Finder click on a file package icon holding down the Control key then choose the menu item "Show Package Contents". If you leave this check-box off, FS will treat the filePackages as simple files, thus it will backup/sync the whole file packages with all the files they contain. If you mark this check-box, FS will treat the file packages as they were folders, therefore FS will only backup/sync the files within the file package which have been modified/created/deleted, and not all the files contained in the file package. This features comes useful to backup/sync file packages as the iPhoto 8 library file. The iPhoto 8 application in facts only updates a few files nested within the file package library, therefore it's not necessary to backup/sync the whole file package library (which could contain GB and GB of data). This feature doesn't regard the files with the extension "app" (the applications - which are file packages too).


• Move to the Trash
If marked, FS will not delete the files (if needed) but it will move them to the trash. So you can later inspect, recover the files from the trash or empty the trash in the Finder. The Preview panel will display a different icon when the mode is delete or move to trash .


• Skip Permissions Check
If marked FS will skip the permissions check during the Scanning Folders phase only. FS will always perform the permissions check during the copy phase, and in case it cannot copy/replace/delete a file/folder it will report an error to the Log, as always. Skipping the Permission Check during the scanning phase could improve the speed of the scanning task, but it is not recommended. In facts, you could discover the "permissions denied" cases only after the whole scanning folder has been performed, that is maybe after a long long time.


• Create sub-folder within destination folder
If marked, FS will create a sub-folder within the destination folder and make this new sub-folder the real destination folder. With this useful option you can organize, for example, a daily backup (even fired by a timer) within a new destination sub-folder called e.g. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday... So once defined your main destination folder as

/Volumes/ExternalDisk/DailyBackup

and set the name of the sub-folder as the “Day of the week”, you will get your daily backup within different folder as:

/Volumes/ExternalDisk/DailyBackup/Monday
/Volumes/ExternalDisk/DailyBackup/Tuesday
/Volumes/ExternalDisk/DailyBackup/Wednesday

If the sub-folder already exists, FS goes on and copies the files to the existing folder. FS doesn’t replace the existing folder with a new one. You can choose the name of the sub-folder from a pop-up menu, e.g. “As the source folder name”, “Day of the week”, “Short day of the week”, “Long month name”, “Short month name”, the current date with several formats as e.g. “2011-04-06”, “2011-04-6-23.58.59”, “Apr-07-2011”... You can also set a custom name by mixing fixed and parametric strings as “Copy of MusicFolder 12-31-2001 by John” where “Copy of” and “by John” are fixed strings, “MusicFolder” is the current source folder name defined by the parameter kSrc and “12-31-2001” is the current date formatted as MM-dd-yyyy. In this case the custom format should be:

‘Copy of’ kSrc MM-ddd-yyyy ‘by John’

where the fixed strings go between single quotes. The parametric strings can easily recalled by the legend here below.