git-remote-dropbox

git-remote-dropbox is a transparent bidirectional bridge between Git and Dropbox. It lets you use a Dropbox folder or a shared folder as a Git remote!

This Git remote helper makes Dropbox act like a true Git remote. It maintains all guarantees that are provided by a traditional Git remote while using Dropbox as a backing store. This means that it works correctly even when there are multiple people operating on the repository at once, making it possible to use a Dropbox shared folder as a Git remote for collaboration.

Once the helper is installed, using it is as simple as adding a remote like dropbox://path/to/repo.

To clone repositories in folders or shared folders mounted in your Dropbox, you can run:

git clone "dropbox://path/to/repo"

To add a remote to an existing local repository, you can run:

git remote add origin "dropbox://path/to/repo"

The repository directory will be created automatically the first time you push.

After adding the remote, you can treat it just like a regular Git remote. The Dropbox-backed remote supports all operations that regular remotes support, and it provides identical guarantees in terms of atomicity even when there are concurrent operations, even when using a shared folder.

Setup

1. Install the Python library for Dropbox API v2. This can be installed by running pip install dropbox.

2. Download the git-remote-dropbox script somewhere in your $PATH and make sure it's executable by running chmod +x git-remote-dropbox.

3. Generate an OAuth 2 token by going to the app console, creating a Dropbox API app with full access to all files and file types, and generating an access token for yourself.

4. Save your OAuth token in ~/.git-remote-dropbox.json. The file should look something like this:

   {
       "token": "xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
   }

Notes

• Do not directly interact with Git repositories in your Dropbox folder - always use git-remote-dropbox. If you're using the Dropbox client to sync files, it's a good idea to use selective sync and disable syncing of the folder containing the repository to avoid any unexpected conflicts, just in case.

• git-remote-dropbox does not use the Dropbox desktop client - it uses the API directly. It does not require that the desktop client is installed.

• The remote helper does not support shallow cloning.

• Cloning a repository or fetching a lot of objects produces lots of loose objects. To save space in the local repository, run git gc --aggressive.

• After cloning a repository from Dropbox, Git will not automatically check out a branch. To check out a branch, run git checkout <branch>.

FAQ

Why shouldn't I keep my Git repository in Dropbox and let the client sync it?

There seem to be a lot of articles on the Internet recommending this as a good workflow. However, this is not a good idea! The desktop client is not aware of how Git manages it's on-disk format, so if there are concurrent changes or delays in syncing, it's possible to have conflicts that result in a corrupted Git repository. This may be uncommon with the way the timing works out in the single user case, but it's still not safe!

Why shouldn't I keep a bare Git repository in a Dropbox shared folder, use it as a folder-based Git remote, and sync it with the desktop client?

There seem to be some articles on the Internet suggesting that this is a good idea. It's not. Using the desktop client to sync a bare Git repository is not safe. Concurrent changes or delays in syncing can result in a corrupted Git repository.

Design

To read about the design of git-remote-dropbox, see DESIGN.md. This could be especially useful if you're thinking about contributing to the project.

Contributing

Do you have ideas on how to improve git-remote-dropbox? Have a feature request, bug report, or patch? Great! See CONTRIBUTING.md for information on what you can do about that.

License

Copyright (c) 2015-2016 Anish Athalye. Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE.md for details.