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The most requested feature, to allow a file or folder to be ignored by Dropbox sync without using selective sync is finally in beta. The community requested a

The most requested feature, to allow a file or folder to be ignored by Dropbox sync without using selective sync is finally in beta. The community requested a .dropboxignore file but they chose another solution which I’m sure is reasonable for making the feature more user friendly to non-devs. This will be immensely helpful for node_modules or build target directories.

chairmanwow1 7y ago
Who needs a VCS when you could just use Dropbox?
- positr0n 7y ago
  Even better, Dropbox as your VCS and database! https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/eaphr8/a_dropbox_account_gave_me_stomach_ulcers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/eaphr8/a_dropbox_...
  - jedieaston 7y ago
    That story makes me want to become a goat farmer every time I read it, but, Dropbox must have intended that usage if they had a publicly available API, right?
    - iudqnolq 7y ago
      According to TFA in parent Dropbox happily had them on a custom plan, charging them more and more as their data grew.
- pytester 7y ago
  Anybody who might want to back up uncommitted changes and files you can't check in to your repository? I don't do it personally, but I know people who do and it's not entirely illogical.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- skocznymroczny 7y ago
  Why use Dropbox if you could just use FTP + SVN/CVS? [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
  - mickael-kerjean 7y ago
    I did exactly that: https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash As a side effect, it even supports .gitignore!
- michaelmior 7y ago
  Dropbox as a VCS for separate documents intended to be accessed by non-technical users is not a terrible solution. Certainly there are better options, but I think something built on Dropbox could be workable in this case.
guitarbill 7y ago
the problem with this solution seems to me that you can't easily recursively ignore e.g. `__pycache__` or `node_modules`. sure, it's less complexity than defining and parsing an oddball text file with potentially weird glob expressions, but also less powerful. still, i'll definitely be making use of this!
NikolaeVarius 7y ago
I can imagine a world where a arbitrary directory is filled with gitignore, dropboxignore, googledriveignore, backblazeignore, s3ignore, rsynciginore, dotignore, ipfsignore . . . Goddamn, stop the world I want to get off
- bsaul 7y ago
  That's probably a clue something needs to be done at the OS level regarding FS integration with cloud syncing systems and permissions.
  - monsieurbanana 7y ago
    All major OS already have a permission' system. It's on dropbox & co to honor them. On linux you can create an user group named "cloud", and allow dropbox to only sync files that belong to that group.
    - bsaul 7y ago
      Except dropbox will be totally unaware and try to access it. What i envisionned was more like a "control center" app of all the outgoing (and incoming) pipes from your FS to syncing systems, with both last syncing time, configuration, etc. A little bit like what's already happening for mail and calendar integration into iOS applications, only for files and on the desktop.
      - monsieurbanana 7y ago
        Sorry, I edited my post before reading yours. Yes, right now Dropbox would probably crash, but that's their problem. I really don't think it's something that should be handled by the OS when they already have a solution for it.
        bsaul 7y ago
        Depending on wether you're a linux, windows or mac user, you'll probably have different expectations on what the OS is suppose to provide by default.
golergka 7y ago
> This will be immensely helpful for node_modules or build target directories. Why would anyone put a node project in Dropbox to begin with?
- ChuckNorris89 7y ago
  Sharing your work with other companies where sales/marketing people need to have access to since they have no clue how to use Git.
- kbumsik 7y ago
  I put everything in Dropbox including all of my projects. In my experience it works pretty well even if node_modules can't be ignored now. Putting every projects in Dropbox with .git is the most awesome feature of Dropbox. With Dropbox's History and Time Machine feature, you will be almost never able to delete/overwrite your work permanently, even by intention.
  - golergka 7y ago
    Why not just use github, gitlab or other VCS? Personally, I enjoy using Dropbox for music projects (which VCS are not well suited for), but for code... (I apologize if I sound as if I'm telling you what you should be doing; I am really just trying to understand the motivation behind such a decision - but I fully understand that even if something seems bizzare to me, it's just my personal humble uninformed opinion).
    - kaishiro 7y ago
      I don’t do as the parent does, but I’ve thought about it. The main difference is that a remote repo still requires an action to achieve backup parity. Using Dropbox your changes would start syncing the second you type :w. So even if you don’t finish the current development thought-line and commit upstream, you’re still backed up. Still not sure if it’s a good idea or not, but not being able to ignore node_modules was the real blocker for me before.
    - treis 7y ago
amelius 7y ago
> but they chose another solution which I’m sure is reasonable for making the feature more user friendly to non-devs. But this begs the question: why would the "ignore file/folder" feature itself be useful to non-devs?
- rovr138 7y ago
  More people can use it, including non-devs. Seems like a win on their side.
cactus2093 7y ago
Now they just need the also much-requested inverse feature, a reliable way to sync files outside of the Dropbox root folder. Useful for app specific config files that often don’t let you choose where to store them. Using symlinks on Mac sort of works but it’s kind of fragile and it’s a pain to remember to set up on a new machine, and on windows there’s no workaround at all. It’s kind of crazy that there are still these low hanging fruit advanced syncing use cases, that would help keep Dropbox’s position as a leader in this crowded space, and they are a multi billion dollar company, but they drag their feet on it for so long. I know they want to keep cranking out mediocre me-too productivity tools that nobody is asking for in case they get lucky and one catches on, but they should really be able to do this too.
- rapunkill 7y ago
  You can use the mklink command to link files since windows 7 https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-symbolic-links-windows.html https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-...
  - davrosthedalek 7y ago
    All linking tricks are often defeated if the program in question writes to the file. Especially on windows, it's common practice to first write out a new file, if you didn't crash, remove the old file and rename the new file. This breaks the link. I'm not sure if this is also common for config files, but I would not be surprised.
    - Epskampie 7y ago
      Just link the parent folder into dropbox, I do it for savegames all the time. Or switch to resilio sync, it’s great and selfhosted. Unlimited folders can be used.
Ohn0 7y ago
For dropbox, which was mainly a user focused solution to sharing files, this seems like a very unfriendly solution to ignoring files?

chairmanwow1 7y ago

Who needs a VCS when you could just use Dropbox?

positr0n 7y ago
Even better, Dropbox as your VCS and database! https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/eaphr8/a_dropbox_account_gave_me_stomach_ulcers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/eaphr8/a_dropbox_...
- jedieaston 7y ago
  That story makes me want to become a goat farmer every time I read it, but, Dropbox must have intended that usage if they had a publicly available API, right?
  - iudqnolq 7y ago
    According to TFA in parent Dropbox happily had them on a custom plan, charging them more and more as their data grew.
pytester 7y ago
Anybody who might want to back up uncommitted changes and files you can't check in to your repository? I don't do it personally, but I know people who do and it's not entirely illogical.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
skocznymroczny 7y ago
Why use Dropbox if you could just use FTP + SVN/CVS? [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- mickael-kerjean 7y ago
  I did exactly that: https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash https://github.com/mickael-kerjean/filestash As a side effect, it even supports .gitignore!
michaelmior 7y ago
Dropbox as a VCS for separate documents intended to be accessed by non-technical users is not a terrible solution. Certainly there are better options, but I think something built on Dropbox could be workable in this case.

guitarbill 7y ago

the problem with this solution seems to me that you can't easily recursively ignore e.g. `__pycache__` or `node_modules`. sure, it's less complexity than defining and parsing an oddball text file with potentially weird glob expressions, but also less powerful. still, i'll definitely be making use of this!

NikolaeVarius 7y ago

I can imagine a world where a arbitrary directory is filled with gitignore, dropboxignore, googledriveignore, backblazeignore, s3ignore, rsynciginore, dotignore, ipfsignore . . . Goddamn, stop the world I want to get off

bsaul 7y ago
That's probably a clue something needs to be done at the OS level regarding FS integration with cloud syncing systems and permissions.
- monsieurbanana 7y ago
  All major OS already have a permission' system. It's on dropbox & co to honor them. On linux you can create an user group named "cloud", and allow dropbox to only sync files that belong to that group.
  - bsaul 7y ago
    Except dropbox will be totally unaware and try to access it. What i envisionned was more like a "control center" app of all the outgoing (and incoming) pipes from your FS to syncing systems, with both last syncing time, configuration, etc. A little bit like what's already happening for mail and calendar integration into iOS applications, only for files and on the desktop.
    - monsieurbanana 7y ago
      Sorry, I edited my post before reading yours. Yes, right now Dropbox would probably crash, but that's their problem. I really don't think it's something that should be handled by the OS when they already have a solution for it.
      - bsaul 7y ago
        Depending on wether you're a linux, windows or mac user, you'll probably have different expectations on what the OS is suppose to provide by default.

golergka 7y ago

> This will be immensely helpful for node_modules or build target directories. Why would anyone put a node project in Dropbox to begin with?

ChuckNorris89 7y ago
Sharing your work with other companies where sales/marketing people need to have access to since they have no clue how to use Git.
kbumsik 7y ago
I put everything in Dropbox including all of my projects. In my experience it works pretty well even if node_modules can't be ignored now. Putting every projects in Dropbox with .git is the most awesome feature of Dropbox. With Dropbox's History and Time Machine feature, you will be almost never able to delete/overwrite your work permanently, even by intention.
- golergka 7y ago
  Why not just use github, gitlab or other VCS? Personally, I enjoy using Dropbox for music projects (which VCS are not well suited for), but for code... (I apologize if I sound as if I'm telling you what you should be doing; I am really just trying to understand the motivation behind such a decision - but I fully understand that even if something seems bizzare to me, it's just my personal humble uninformed opinion).
  - kaishiro 7y ago
    I don’t do as the parent does, but I’ve thought about it. The main difference is that a remote repo still requires an action to achieve backup parity. Using Dropbox your changes would start syncing the second you type :w. So even if you don’t finish the current development thought-line and commit upstream, you’re still backed up. Still not sure if it’s a good idea or not, but not being able to ignore node_modules was the real blocker for me before.
  - treis 7y ago

amelius 7y ago

> but they chose another solution which I’m sure is reasonable for making the feature more user friendly to non-devs. But this begs the question: why would the "ignore file/folder" feature itself be useful to non-devs?

rovr138 7y ago
More people can use it, including non-devs. Seems like a win on their side.

cactus2093 7y ago

Now they just need the also much-requested inverse feature, a reliable way to sync files outside of the Dropbox root folder. Useful for app specific config files that often don’t let you choose where to store them. Using symlinks on Mac sort of works but it’s kind of fragile and it’s a pain to remember to set up on a new machine, and on windows there’s no workaround at all. It’s kind of crazy that there are still these low hanging fruit advanced syncing use cases, that would help keep Dropbox’s position as a leader in this crowded space, and they are a multi billion dollar company, but they drag their feet on it for so long. I know they want to keep cranking out mediocre me-too productivity tools that nobody is asking for in case they get lucky and one catches on, but they should really be able to do this too.

rapunkill 7y ago
You can use the mklink command to link files since windows 7 https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-symbolic-links-windows.html https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/131182-create-soft-hard-...
- davrosthedalek 7y ago
  All linking tricks are often defeated if the program in question writes to the file. Especially on windows, it's common practice to first write out a new file, if you didn't crash, remove the old file and rename the new file. This breaks the link. I'm not sure if this is also common for config files, but I would not be surprised.
  - Epskampie 7y ago
    Just link the parent folder into dropbox, I do it for savegames all the time. Or switch to resilio sync, it’s great and selfhosted. Unlimited folders can be used.

Ohn0 7y ago

For dropbox, which was mainly a user focused solution to sharing files, this seems like a very unfriendly solution to ignoring files?