Running as a service

For day-to-day use on a systemd-based Linux workstation, run the daemon as a systemd user service so it starts with your session and restarts on crash.

One command

From a source checkout, ./setup.sh does everything on this page in one step — it builds and installs the binaries, writes the config, installs and reloads the unit, previews a dry-run, and (after you confirm) enables and starts the service. Add --gui to choose the folders in the desktop onboarding wizard instead of on the command line. The sections below are the manual equivalent, and how to install from a native package.

From a source install

Install the binaries and the sample assets:

cargo install --path .
install -Dm600 examples/proton-sync.toml ~/.config/proton-sync/proton-sync.toml
install -Dm644 examples/systemd/proton-syncd.service ~/.config/systemd/user/proton-syncd.service

Or use the helper script, which installs the config at mode 0600, the unit at 0644, reloads the user manager, and won’t clobber an existing config unless you pass --force-config (add --enable/--start to enable or start it too):

examples/systemd/install-user-service.sh

Edit ~/.config/proton-sync/proton-sync.toml for your roots before enabling the service. The sample unit runs proton-syncd --config %h/.config/proton-sync/proton-sync.toml and relies on the daemon’s XDG defaults for the socket, lockfile, and index.

From a native package

The RPM, deb, and AUR packages ship their own unit at /usr/lib/systemd/user/proton-syncd.service (with ExecStart=/usr/bin/proton-syncd). You still create your config file first. The sample config’s installed location varies by package — Fedora ships it at /usr/share/doc/proton-drive-sync-engine/proton-sync.toml, Arch at /usr/share/doc/proton-drive-sync-engine/examples/proton-sync.toml, and the Debian package doesn’t ship it (use examples/proton-sync.toml from the repo). Copy whichever applies, then edit it:

install -Dm600 <sample-proton-sync.toml> ~/.config/proton-sync/proton-sync.toml
$EDITOR ~/.config/proton-sync/proton-sync.toml

See Native packages.

Enable and inspect

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now proton-syncd.service
systemctl --user status proton-syncd.service
journalctl --user -u proton-syncd.service -f

Control it as usual — the CLI finds the default runtime socket automatically:

proton-sync status

Dry-run after changing roots

Run a --dry-run from the shell whenever you change --local-root, --remote-root, or --proton-cli, before letting the service sync unattended. See Dry-run.

Prerequisites for a service

• proton-drive must be on PATH and logged in for the user the service runs as — the daemon shells it for remote file operations and reuses its keyring session for change detection.
• The desktop keyring must be unlocked for event-driven detection to reuse the CLI session; otherwise the daemon degrades to snapshot scans.
• Only one daemon per user may run (a user-global lock enforces this) because the shared proton-drive CLI cache isn’t concurrency-safe.

Building a release archive

To bundle the binaries plus the service assets into a distributable archive:

examples/packaging/build-release-archive.sh

By default it writes under target/dist; use --archive-path <PATH> to choose another location. The manifest at examples/packaging/release-assets.toml lists what a user-service distribution is expected to contain.