I use Dropbox for collaborating on anything BUT source code. Don't put repos in Dropbox. Who the heck ever thought that was a good idea?
Dropbox is not a tool for developers
21–30 of 73 posts
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#22I am surprised to see so many people mentioning dropbox and git. What does dropbox add that you don't get from git?[1] And/or with git and a decent backup system(tarsnap/duplicity/rsync)? It seems like a lot of extra overhead and data privacy concerns for little gain. What am I missing? [1] I'm not saying this because git is the magic fairy dust. Replace git with hg, darcs etc.
I don't get it either. I've seen entire blog posts dedicated to using Dropbox as a git remote [1]. This is insanity! Git expects very fine grained control over the files in a git repository. I've also seen Dropbox generate "conflicted copies" for files that I don't have open and haven't modified. Literally I've sat and watched Dropbox notices come in about conflicted copies on files that are years old. I opened the folder containing the files and stared as the folder filled up with conflicted copies (which I promptly deleted).
There's no way I'd trust Dropbox to touch my git repos.
1: http://intermediaware.com/blog/how-to-use-dropbox-as-a-git-r...
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#23For one developer projects (aka side projects) Dropbox is great. I now can switch across many machines I have and don't have to lug around a specific laptop and when I boot up, the latest version of the project is there for me to spend an hour or two on and forget about for another week.
Having said that, DB is not a version control tool. Being how intelligent the HN community is I don't quite understand the point of the post: use the tool for what it's meant to be and save yourself the headache (and a blog post).
BitBucket is perfect for private repositories if you have more than 1 developer and want version control and it's free.
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#24A timely post. Dropbox loves to delete things, especially if you mess with 'selective sync'. For example, it deleted the git repository of my project a few weeks in. It deleted all of the files I had symlinked to in a subdirectory of my project. I was able to recover these files, but Dropbox is damn scary , since I don't know that actual circumstances in which these deletions occur. I suspect it has something to do w…
This is something I constantly have to remind people with "sync" solutions (Dropbox, rsync, robocopy, etc). Anything that mirrors or syncs has the potential to delete the SOURCE material too. That is what it is designed to do.
The responses I seem to get are "NOT if you set it up correctly!!" which is obviously true, while also somehow managing to miss my point entirely.
If you want to just one way copy something then use a solution that is ONLY one way (copy, xcopy, S3 backups, CrashPlan, etc). If you want to mirror/sync then keep a nice backup for when that goes wrong.
PS - Also make sure you know the "rules" a sync solution runs using. For example how does it decide when a file is deleting? Is it just looking at directory update time and lack of files? What if files haven't been synced yet but the folder gets updated?
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#25[deleted]
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#26It is a tool, but you just have to use it the right way: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-gitdropbox-...
I agree but it's easy to forget the premises on which it makes sense.
I like the idea of storing my git bare repository on my dropbox, while pulling from it to another non-dropbox directory. For a private repository, it's a nice alternative to using bitbucket. But, I think it is only reasonable if I'm the only one syncing with the repository. As soon as I want to collaborate on my shared private git repo, time to use bitbucket.
With Logic Pro, I will record directly into Dropbox, but only if I turn off sync while recording. Then I can share the project with my mixer/editor in another state. But there again we make sure not to be in the project at the same time.
In short, my sense is that Dropbox is for sync and backup. It's not for simultaneous co-working.
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#27I am surprised to see so many people mentioning dropbox and git. What does dropbox add that you don't get from git?[1] And/or with git and a decent backup system(tarsnap/duplicity/rsync)? It seems like a lot of extra overhead and data privacy concerns for little gain. What am I missing? [1] I'm not saying this because git is the magic fairy dust. Replace git with hg, darcs etc.
Presumably the difference is that you don't have to pull/push. Can't say doing that ever bothered me though. Edit: actually it looks like most people use a bare repo on dropbox so you still push/pull from it. I don't understand the use-case at all then.
Not having to pull/push is also nice. If you just start editing a file and want to keep working on your laptop at the cafe without having to commit anything.
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#28I am surprised to see so many people mentioning dropbox and git. What does dropbox add that you don't get from git?[1] And/or with git and a decent backup system(tarsnap/duplicity/rsync)? It seems like a lot of extra overhead and data privacy concerns for little gain. What am I missing? [1] I'm not saying this because git is the magic fairy dust. Replace git with hg, darcs etc.
Is that a real question? Git is local only. It is not centralised.
Are you confusing Git with Github (service)?
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#29I am surprised to see so many people mentioning dropbox and git. What does dropbox add that you don't get from git?[1] And/or with git and a decent backup system(tarsnap/duplicity/rsync)? It seems like a lot of extra overhead and data privacy concerns for little gain. What am I missing? [1] I'm not saying this because git is the magic fairy dust. Replace git with hg, darcs etc.
I use version control AND dropbox. Version control for... controlling versions, and Dropbox for sync and immediate recovery of all my work files should something bad happen.
Which did happen about two weeks ago. My laptop let the magic smoke out, and my deja dup backup wouldn't restore.
Re: Dropbox is not a tool for developers
#30Doesn't this solve the problem? http://sparkleshare.org/