Synced folder in vagrant is not syncing in realtime

Question

I am setting up a synced folder in a vagrant machine like shown in cmd dump below and expect that whenever I update the files in this folder on the host machine the updates will be reflected inside guest machine too, however this is not happening.

Here is the dump and evidence of it not happening (I create a sample file and modify it by changing text in in it from test1 to test2):

mypc:~ user$ cd Projects/synctest/ mypc:synctest user$ ls Vagrantfile mypc:synctest user$ cat Vagrantfile # -*- mode: ruby -*- # vi: set ft=ruby :  VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION = "2"  Vagrant.configure(VAGRANTFILE_API_VERSION) do |config|    # always use Vagrants insecure key   config.ssh.insert_key = false    # Setup box   config.vm.box = "coreos-stable"    # Setup shared folder   config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant"    # Setup memory usage   config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |v|     v.memory = 2048   end    # Define `dev` vm   config.vm.define :dev do |dev|   end    if Vagrant.has_plugin?("vagrant-cachier")     config.cache.scope = :box   end  end mypc:synctest user$ echo "test1" > test.txt mypc:synctest user$ cat test.txt test1 mypc:synctest user$ vagrant up Bringing machine 'dev' up with 'virtualbox' provider... ==> dev: Importing base box 'coreos-stable'... ==> dev: Matching MAC address for NAT networking... ==> dev: Checking if box 'coreos-stable' is up to date... ==> dev: Setting the name of the VM: synctest_dev_1429451824339_35638 ==> dev: Fixed port collision for 22 => 2222. Now on port 2200. ==> dev: Clearing any previously set network interfaces... ==> dev: Preparing network interfaces based on configuration...     dev: Adapter 1: nat ==> dev: Forwarding ports...     dev: 22 => 2200 (adapter 1) ==> dev: Running 'pre-boot' VM customizations... ==> dev: Booting VM... ==> dev: Waiting for machine to boot. This may take a few minutes...     dev: SSH address: 127.0.0.1:2200     dev: SSH username: core     dev: SSH auth method: private key     dev: Warning: Connection timeout. Retrying... ==> dev: Machine booted and ready! ==> dev: Rsyncing folder: /Users/user/Projects/synctest/ => /vagrant ==> dev: Rsyncing folder: /Users/user/.vagrant.d/cache/coreos-stable/ => /tmp/vagrant-cache ==> dev: Configuring cache buckets... mypc:synctest user$ vagrant ssh CoreOS stable (633.1.0) core@localhost ~ $ cd ../../vagrant/ core@localhost /vagrant $ ls Vagrantfile  test.txt core@localhost /vagrant $ cat test.txt test1 core@localhost /vagrant $ exit logout Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed. mypc:synctest user$ cat test.txt test1 mypc:synctest user$ echo "test2" > test.txt mypc:synctest user$ cat test.txt test2 mypc:synctest user$ vagrant ssh Last login: Sun Apr 19 13:57:37 2015 from 10.0.2.2 CoreOS stable (633.1.0) core@localhost ~ $ cd ../../vagrant/ core@localhost /vagrant $ ls Vagrantfile  test.txt core@localhost /vagrant $ cat test.txt test1 core@localhost /vagrant $ echo "hi from guest machine" > test.txt core@localhost /vagrant $ cat test.txt hi from guest machine core@localhost /vagrant $ exit logout Connection to 127.0.0.1 closed. mypc:synctest user$ cat test.txt test2 mypc:synctest user$ 

Is it even supposed to sync realtime? If yes, why is not syncing?

Edit: OS X 10.8.5, VirtualBox, coreos box.

Answer 1

In your Vagrantfile the synced folder type is default vboxsf, however, in the vagrant up stdout, it is showing rsync type, I think you need to fix it in the config file.

Assume that you are using rsync type, you should have the following in your Vagrantfile

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|   config.vm.synced_folder ".", "/vagrant", type: "rsync",     rsync__exclude: ".git/" end 

NOTE: By default, rsync__auto is set to true, which means rsync-auto will watch and automatically sync this folder.

Run vagrant rsync-auto and the directory should be in sync between host and guest.

Refer to vagrant docs for more information.