Capability Comparison Matrix

Understanding where Bisync Hub fits in your storage infrastructure:

Capability / Feature	Generic Cron Script	Sync Desktop GUI	Raw Rclone CLI	Bisync Hub
Interactive Deletion Review	❌ None	❌ Rare	❌ None	✅ Full Diff Modal
Multi-Signal Conflict Heuristics	❌ Timestamps only	⚠️ Basic rename	⚠️ Timestamp or manual	✅ 4-Analyzer Engine
Canary Mount Protection	⚠️ Custom script only	❌ None	❌ None	✅ Built-in RCLONE_TEST
Cryptographic Audit Ledger	❌ Plain text logs	❌ Local state	❌ Stdout logs	✅ Immutable SHA-256 Ledger
Zero External Runtime Deps	⚠️ Bash / Shell	❌ Electron / Qt	✅ Go binary	✅ Single Go Binary
Embedded Web Dashboard	❌ None	⚠️ Desktop only	❌ RC webgui only	✅ Lightweight Embedded
Webhook Alerts (Discord/Telegram)	⚠️ Manual curl	❌ OS toasts only	❌ None	⏳ Planned (Priority #4)
Cloud Clock Skew Compensation	❌ None	⚠️ Basic fuzzing	⚠️ --modify-window	✅ Automatic Skew Matrix
POSIX Advisory Flock Locks	⚠️ Fragile PID files	❌ OS locks	❌ None	✅ Race-Free POSIX Flock
Path Traversal Jail Confinement	❌ None	❌ None	❌ None	✅ Enforced Local Jails

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Why Not Just Run a Cron Script?

Cron scripts are ubiquitous, but they fail silently when edge cases occur:

1. The Unmounted Mount Disaster: If an NFS/SMB share or rclone mount disconnects, an automated cron script sees an empty folder and issues deletions for thousands of files across the remote replica.
2. The Cloud Timestamp Shift: Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive report timestamps differently than local ext4/APFS filesystems. A simple script relying on test fileA -nt fileB frequently overwrites valid changes.
3. Overlapping Job Corruption: If a sync run takes longer than the cron interval (e.g., due to large video uploads), concurrent sync instances access the cache simultaneously, corrupting .bisync lock state.

Bisync Hub eliminates every one of these failure modes out of the box.