Introducing HostnExtra Sync: File Synchronization for Server Deployments

At HostnExtra, we're building an open source ecosystem of practical tools for developers, DevOps engineers, and system administrators.

Today, we're introducing HostnExtra Sync, a file synchronization plugin for the HostnExtra CLI.

HostnExtra Sync provides a simple command-line workflow for synchronizing files and directories between local machines and remote servers using SSH and rsync.

Why HostnExtra Sync?

rsync is widely used for reliable and efficient file synchronization. HostnExtra Sync provides a consistent interface around it for common development, deployment, and server management workflows.

For example:

hostnextra sync push ./build --to web-prod-01:/var/www

The synchronization itself is handled by rsync, while SSH authentication and connection handling continue to use the existing system SSH environment.

Key Features

HostnExtra Sync supports:

• Push files and directories to remote servers
• Pull files and directories from remote servers
• Compare local and remote files
• Watch directories and synchronize changes
• Dry-run operations
• File and directory exclusions
• Directory-scoped --delete
• SSH connection reuse
• Remote rsync detection
• Transfer progress reporting
• Direct SSH targets
• HostnExtra SSH Config integration

This makes it suitable for server deployments, development environments, remote workflows, and everyday infrastructure operations.

Works With Existing SSH Workflows

HostnExtra Sync is designed around the tools developers and system administrators already use.

It uses the system SSH client and supports existing SSH authentication and configuration, including SSH keys, agents, custom ports, identity files, and ProxyJump configurations.

It can also work with HostnExtra SSH Config, allowing managed hosts to be used directly:

hostnextra sync push ./build --to web-prod-01:/var/www

Safe Synchronization

Synchronization operations can make important changes to remote systems, so HostnExtra Sync provides dry-run support and explicit handling for destructive operations.

For example:

hostnextra sync push ./build --to web-prod-01:/var/www --delete --dry-run

This allows changes to be reviewed before synchronization.

Open Source

HostnExtra Sync is released under the MIT License.

GitHub Repository:
https://github.com/hostnextra/sync

npm Package:
https://www.npmjs.com/package/hostnextra-sync

Install it through HostnExtra CLI:

npm install -g hostnextra
hostnextra plugin add sync

HostnExtra Sync requires Node.js 22+, rsync on both the local and remote systems, and SSH access to the destination server.

Building the HostnExtra Open Source Ecosystem

HostnExtra Sync is another step toward our goal of building focused, composable tools for infrastructure and server management.

Together with HostnExtra CLI, we're creating a foundation for practical command-line workflows that developers and infrastructure teams can use every day.

We're continuing to build and release more open source tools as part of the HostnExtra ecosystem.

If you work with Linux servers, deployments, or infrastructure automation, we hope HostnExtra Sync becomes a useful part of your workflow.