Unison is a tool, which is at my oppinion overlooked too often, probably because the configuration is unfortunately quite confusing. That's why I want to post the config-file I use to keep all my Data on my netbook up to date. I hope it can help you understand the configuration of unison, so that you can fork it to your personal preference files!
To sync the more than half a terabyte (!) of data quickly I decited to split it into two config:
The first config is to sync the most important folders, as well as all eMails I have in Kontact. So this is the config-file, located in ~/.unison/net.prf:
# Roots of the synchronization
# on the host (Netbook):
root = /home
# remote (Desktop)
root = ssh://dirk@192.168.178.50//home/dirk
# Preserve user and group ID
owner = true
group = true
# paths to include in sync (relative to the root above):
path = MeeGo
path = Schule
path = Privat
# sync also all eMail-folders of kontact:
path = .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/.inbox.directory/*
path = .kde/share/apps/kmail/mail/.send-mail.directory/*
The second file is on my desktop. I do the quick-sync (above) over wifi (check takes about one minute for about 20GB of Data an 30.000 files), for the entire sync I connect my netbook to wired LAN.
Here is the file (~/.unison/netbook.prf):
# Roots of the synchronization
root = /home
root = ssh://dirk@192.168.178.49//home
# Preserve user and group ID
owner = true
group = true
path = dirk
# space for all folders, not *! (otherwise just subdirectories are checked)
# ignore hidden folders and files:
ignore = Path dirk/.*
ignore = Name dirk/.*
# ignore paths from my quick-sync to prevent conflicts (both would be changed) and my temp-folder
ignore = Path dirk/MeeGo
ignore = Path dirk/Privat
ignore = Path dirk/Schule
ignore = Path dirk/Netzwerk
# force sync of hidden folder with virtual machines:
path = dirk/.VirtualBox
Keywords: Syncronisieren, Dateien, Files, Netbook, Tablet, Notebook, WLan, Kalender, Calendar, eMail, Datenbank, Database, syncronize