Setting up Git syncing for Obsidian on Android
Download the following apps from the Google Play Store:
Obsidian
Termux
- install termux from fdroid !
On first launch run this command: yes | pkg upgrade
or apt update
apt upgrade && apt update
How to install packages
Termux uses apt package manager, just like Debian. However we highly recommend to use the pkg utility which is a wrapper for apt.
Install package: pkg install package-name
Uninstall package: pkg uninstall package-name
Upgrade system: pkg upgrade
List installed packages: pkg list-installed
Search for a package: pkg search query
Step 2: Configure Termux
Firstly, ensure everything is up to date on Termux by running:
apt update && apt upgrade
Then, install ‘cronie’ and ‘termux-services’:
pkg install cronie termux-services
‘cronie’ contains the daemon ‘crond’ which helps us run specified programs at scheduled times
‘termux-services’ allows us to enable the ‘crond’ service.
Next, restart Termux.
Finally, enable ‘crond’:
sv-enable crond
Optional - If you are familiar with vim, you can install and enable it by running:
pkg install vim
export EDITOR=vim
Step 3: Set Up Git
Install ‘git’ and ‘openssh’:
apt install git openssl-tool openssh
‘git’ is version control software
‘openssh’ is a suite of secure networking utilities based on the Secure Shell (SSH) protocol
Set your email and name.
git config --global user.name "<name>"
git config --global user.email "<email>"
Now we can create the SSH keys that we’ll be using as our authentication method to access our Git repository:
ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "<email>"
- This creates the folder ‘~/.ssh’ containing our private key (id_rsa), our public key (id_rsa.pub) and some other files which we won’t be using.
Finally we’ll need to add our public key to our Git repository hosting service. In this case I’m using GitHub and the details of how this is done can be found here.
The step above will be easier to do on our desktop so we need to find a way to get our public key there. To make things easier, we’ll set up symlinks to access ‘/storage/emulated/0’ on our device from within Termux via ‘~/storage’:
termux-setup-storage
An easy method would be copying the file to our ‘documents’ folder using a file explorer to share it to our desktop or plugging our phone into our desktop and manually moving it over.
mv ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub ~/storage/shared/documents/id_rsa.pub
To check if everything is set up correctly clone your repository:
git clone git@github.com:<user>/<repo> ~/storage/shared/documents/my-vault
Step 4: Set Up Git Syncing
This step is based on Bryan Jenks’ Git sync workflow with a few minor adjustments.
I’ll be referring to the source code he has provided here.
Download the ‘zk_sync.sh’ file to your device:
pkg install wget
cd ~/storage/shared/documents
wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/lucidhacker/0d6ea6308997921a5f810be10a48a498/raw/386fd5c640282daeaa3c9c5b7f4e875511c2946c/zk_sync.sh
- ‘wget’ is program that retrieves content from web servers
Modify the shebang to the following by replacing line 1 with:
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
- for
.shortcuts/you should add, also this except for this shebang aboveHOME="/data/data/com.termux/files/home"
Set ‘ZK_PATH’ to the following:
ZK_PATH="/data/data/com.termux/files/storage/shared/documents/my-vault"
Optional - Add source of the git commit to the commit message by modifying the ‘git commit’ command with:
git commit -q -m "Last Sync: $(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S") (Mobile)"
Step 5: Automate Git Syncing
Now that we have our Git syncing working we can automate it to run on a schedule. I like to do it every 30 minutes.
crontab -e
Add the following:
*/30 * * * * bash ~/storage/shared/documents/zk_sync.sh
- If you’d like to customise how frequent the script runs use crontab.guru, a great tool to help you create the correct expression
Considerations
-
The automated syncing will stop if Termux is not running
- You can lock apps in multitask on Android by holding the app on the recent apps screen and pressing ‘Lock’
Using termux-job-scheduler
Install Termux:API from F-Droid
Use termux-job-scheduler to schedule a script every 15 minutes
--job-i should be increased by +1 for each next job you have
to see which one should go next: termux-job-scheduler -p
termux-job-scheduler -s $HOME/obsidian.sh --persisted true --period-ms 900000 --job-id 1
It runs even if termux is not running
my script:
cd /storage/emulated/0/Code/notes
git pull --rebase
git add --all
git commit -m "mobile update $(date)"
git push origin main
Note: make script executable (
+x) before runningtermux-job-scheduler:
chmod +x /data/data/com.termux/files/home/notes.sh
termux-job-scheduler -s ~/obsidian_notes.sh --persisted true --period-ms 900000 --job-id 1
Widget
to have a shortcut widget, to manually update outside of sync on interval:
https://github.com/termux/termux-widget
Create ~/.shortcuts/ directory.
mkdir -p /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.shortcuts
chmod 700 -R /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.shortcuts
Create ~/.shortcuts/tasks directory.
mkdir -p /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.shortcuts/tasks
chmod 700 -R /data/data/com.termux/files/home/.shortcuts/tasks
Script
#!/data/data/com.termux/files/usr/bin/bash
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This says find the first instance of a sh (shell)
# binary and use that shell to execute these commands.
# There is little to no complexity here and no bashisms so it
# should work just fine on most systems and instances of shells
# (bash, zsh, sh, etc.)
ZK_PATH="storage/shared/documents/obsidian-notes"
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ We are assigning the variable `ZK_PATH`
# with the (maybe) long string to our vault's location (mine is super
# long so this makes the final command look cleaner,
# it's unnecessary if you care)
cd "$ZK_PATH"
# ^^^^^^^^^^^ cd: Change Directory to your vault's location
git pull
# ^^^^^^ So if any changes occurred remotely or on another machine
# your local machine knows to pull those changes down instead of
# having to wait for a local change to run the script
CHANGES_EXIST="$(git status --porcelain | wc -l)"
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ we are assigning
# a value to the variable `CHANGES_EXIST`, the value is the output
# of `git add --porcelain` which outputs a simple list of just the
# changed files and then the output is piped into the `wc` utility
# which is "word count" but with the `-l` flag it will count lines.
# basically, it says how many total files have been modified.
# if there are no changes the output is 0
if [ "$CHANGES_EXIST" -eq 0 ]; then
exit 0
fi
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The whole if block is saying
# in plain english: if there are no changes (CHANGES_EXIST = 0)
# then exit with no error code `exit 0` if there are changes,
# then continue on with the script
git pull
# ^^^^^^ git pull: this will look at your repo and say "any changes?"
# if there are they will be brought down and applied to your local machine
# In the context of a team environment, a more robust approach is needed
# as this workflow doesnt factor in branches, merge conflicts, etc
# but if you leave your home machine, do work on the work machine,
# push to the remote repo before you return to the home machine, then
# you can just get the latest changes applied to the home machine and
# continue on like normal
git add .
# ^^^^^^^ git add. = add all current changes in the repo no
# matter the level of nested folders/files
git commit -q -m "Last Sync: $(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")(Mobile)"
# ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
# git commit -q -m: this says we are committing changes to
# our repo, -q says BE QUIET no output prints to terminal
# if ran manually, -m defines a message for the commit log
# the -m message is "Last Sync: $(date +"%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S")" this
# runs the command date with the formatting arguments for a
# date in YYYY-MM-DD HH-MM-SS format as your commit message
git push -q
# ^^^^^^^^^ git push -q: push the changes to github and
# BE QUIET about it The semicolons between commands are
# just saying run each command and then run the subsequent
# command, they're just separators
Top comments (1)
there is now an easier way using the Obsideian git plugin
i was having problems using it at first but now i got it setup you only need to have a personal access token and fill out your info in the plugin settings then clone your repo using the plugin make changes then use the command commit all with specific message then push and thats it
it has some performance issues but for me it works great