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Forum Discussion
sync only one folder on linux
I have a huge dropbox business account, and I'd like to sync one "deep" folder on a linux client. This folder is deep in the folder hierarchy, so for example the folder: "folder 1/folder 2/folder 3"...
Hi Walter - I've found another workaround which is to just share a specific folder with another Dropbox.
This avoids syncing and excluding.
But pausing the sync after setting up the link was going to be my next step.
I think all of this can be avoided if there was a config file that could be read by the dropbox linux daemon to not sync specific folders in a list.
Hi sydsyd ,
Would you mind clarifying the "sharing single folder" solution? Did you have to generate a public sharing link and then use that? Or did you somehow manage to share the link *from* your Dropbox account and then again use the *same* Dropbox account in a different location with that link?
What I've got is a Dropbox account on a headless linux server that's FTP enabled. The linux account folder structure looks like this:
~account/Dropbox
~account/Dropbox/fred
~account/Dropbox/mary
~account/Dropbox/john
etc
I then send a share link for each of the user's folders Fred, Mary, John to the respective user.
That way, I don't need to sync Fred, Mary, John's folders to enable them to have FTP access to their dropbox.
Hey, that is a pretty clever idea! I hadn't even thought about using Dropbox as the backend home dir sync for different system users under Linux. One quick followup question if you don't mind though. In this scenario didn't you have to share an unprotected link with each of the users in this example? I mean, those don't actually map back to 3 actually different Dropbox accounts, so Fred / Mary / John each got a shared link that they better keep super secret and private or else their files could be seen by others?
No wait, that doesn't make sense. In your situation the authentication would have been controlled at the ftp level, right? So the "link sharing" is all for your own administration of the directories on the backend. So we're back to my original question of "are you sharing links with yourself"? Sorry if I misunderstood something here; I'm really curious to know how this is working because my use case is still applicable to your approach (I'm trying to share a private wiki directory holding markdown files that I can sync local and remote on a headless Linux box).
I'm not sure what you mean by "share an unprotected link with each of the users".
I go to a computer with a desktop client. In my case a Mac that's logged in to the account that's syncing with the headless Linux server.
I right click on one of the folders and send a share to that user's account. I can give them edit or read only permissions. Once that user accepts, the folder will appear in that user's account.
Got it, I understand now. Thank you sydsyd .
Give it a go and let me know how you get along.
The biggest issue I had to get this working was to have a stable installation of a headless Dropbox client on the Linux box.
