This article outlines how to install, remove and run Resilio Sync silently so that there is no (or minimal) user interaction necessary or possible during the installation process, and while invoking and running the application. It also discusses the situations where silent installation and/or running is not possible. The platforms discussed in this document include Windows, Mac and Linux.
SILENT INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL
The process of preparing and executing a silent install varies by platform. This process is the easiest on the Macintosh, a little more complicated on Linux, and a lot more challenging on Windows.
Installation Steps Common to All Platforms
On any platform, the users performing the installation process may need to modify rules for the resident firewall to permit Sync to accept incoming (and possibly create outgoing) network connections; the description of how to do this is (mostly) outside of the scope of this document.
WINDOWS
SILENT INSTALLATION
The Sync executable file isn't an MSI (Windows Installer) file. For an installation that is as silent as possible, run the following command from a NT command-line terminal:
User Account Control on Windows will display a confirmation dialog asking if the user will allow changes to system configuration as part of the installation process.
Handling the User Account Control Dialog
If the user accepts the changes, Sync is installed, including icons, Program Files files, startup menu items, Windows Explorer context menu items, and registry entries. However, the Sync program does not run at the end of installation; the program must be started manually after the installation process completes.
If the user chooses to reject the changes, the installation process proceeds as though the command did not request a silent install: the Windows firewall dialog is presented, and the Sync web UI appears as part of running the program. To make this process not require user interaction, it may be necessary to run the installation process from an account that already has active administrative privileges.
Configuring Windows Firewall
By default, the Windows Firewall dialog shows that Sync will be able to accept incoming connections on private networks, and will not be able to accept incoming connections on public networks. If it is necessary to make changes in Windows Firewall to allow incoming connections on public networks, modify firewall rules using calls to the netsh command-line tool using the advfirewall command.
SILENT REMOVAL
Full Silent removal of Sync is not possible on Windows, therefore some steps will have to be performed manually:
- Run ResilioSync.exe /UNINSTALL /S /REMSETTINGS - this will delete the ResilioSync.exe file.
You may need to perform these steps as well: - Open Control Panel => Programs and features => locate Resilio Sync => click Uninstall.
- Delete the Program Files/ResilioSync directory along with the DLLs which are loaded by the File Manager to support the context menu.
- Delete Sync-related registry entries in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software and HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software
You may need to reboot the computer before removing the DLLs, because the File Manager doesn't unload the DLLs as part of the uninstallation process.
MACINTOSH
SILENT INSTALLATION
An administrator can install Sync on a Macintosh using the command line by executing the following commands:
- hdiutil attach ResilioSync.dmg
- sudo cp -R /Volumes/Resilio\ Sync/Resilio\ Sync.app /Applications
- hdiutil detach /Volumes/Resilio\ Sync/
SILENT REMOVAL
Perform uninstallation by deleting the application folder created in step 2 of the silent installation procedure. This may fail, with a message including "because some of its plugins [were] in use", if the shared library is loaded by the Mac file manager for Sync's context menu entry. Open Activity Monitor and stop all SyncFinderExtension processes.
LINUX/FREE BSD
SILENT INSTALLATION
The Linux installation file is a gzipped tar archive containing three files:
- rslsync (executable binary)
- LICENSE.TXT
- README
The README file contains instructions on how to run rslsync. Silent installation is easy as long as the installation process has the privileges necessary to place the files in the desired locations; this can be enabled by using sudo to run the installation process as root.
Pre-installation Decisions
The person setting up the installation will need to:
- choose a location for the rslsync executable
- choose a writable storage directory in the file system that will be used for storing settings files and a pid (process ID) file.
- create a configuration file (see more here), define storage folder there. If not chosen Sync will create .sync in the current location from which it's launched.
- create scripts associated with automatic application control (init scripts) if necessary
Any automatic application control scripts must be set up to run rslsync with the --config argument containing the path to the installed sync.conf file.
Installation Tasks
The installation process will need to:
- copy rslsync to the desired location
- copy application control scripts to their location
- create a writable directory for settings files and a pid file
- copy configuration file to desired location
SILENT REMOVAL
Uninstallation is relatively easy, and can be easily scripted.
- remove whatever automatic application loading was set up
- remove rslsync executable
- remove the sync.conf configuration file
- remove settings directory and contents