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zephyr707's avatar
zephyr707
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago
Solved

Best practices for using symlinks (symbolic links)

Hi there, I use dropbox on linux with symlinks, but am not sure which is the best/preferred way to use them. Is there a best practice for using this type of configuration? Currently I use symlink...
Create
desktop
Linux
sync
  • Daphne's avatar
    Daphne
    7 years ago
    Hey there zephyr707,
     
    I would strongly recommend sticking with the current configuration you currently have, which would be having the actual files in the Dropbox folder and having your symlinks in the home directory. In this case, it wouldn’t have any affect on the files syncing as the actual files are within the Dropbox folder.
     
    Issues occur with syncing when the files are located elsewhere and the symlink is within the Dropbox folder instead. This can cause performance issues and high CPU usage when trying to sync the files. In some cases, the desktop app may even just sync the symlink file itself and not the referenced file. This will mean the actual file won’t be synced to your Dropbox account so you wont be able to access the actual file via the web or other devices your account syncs to.
     
    Hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions - Thanks!
zephyr707's avatar
zephyr707
Helpful | Level 7
7 years ago

Awesome, thanks a lot, Daphne, I feel confident now setting it up this way!

p.s. the little thumbs up like button doesn't seem to be working for me, but cheers for the help! 

Daphne's avatar
Daphne
Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
7 years ago
I’m happy to hear you’re confident with this moving forward zephyr707!
 
Hope you have a great weekend!
 
PS. Thanks for letting me know that little hiccup there with the like button, I’ll have a look into this.
  • niazy's avatar
    niazy
    Helpful | Level 6
    7 years ago

    Hi there,

    I've had this setup (linking my Desktop to the a ~/Dropbox/Desktop for years now. However, I just bought a new Macbook Pro running OS X catalina. Everytime I create the symlink to the Dropbox, it initially works, but then the OS restores what seems like a default folder and deletes the link. 

    Any ideas?

    • Rich's avatar
      Rich
      Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
      7 years ago
      niazy wrote:

      Everytime I create the symlink to the Dropbox, it initially works, but then the OS restores what seems like a default folder and deletes the link.

      I can't comment on why Catalina is replacing the symlink with a new folder, but I can say it doesn't matter much anymore. Dropbox has never supported symlinks and recently changed how they sync.

      Dropbox will no longer sync the content at the other end of a symlink when the target folder is located outside of the Dropbox folder. i.e., You can no longer use symlinks to sync external folders like your Desktop.

      • niazy's avatar
        niazy
        Helpful | Level 6
        7 years ago

        Thanks Rich,

        From reading about the changes, I shouldn't be affected. My link is created in my home directory and links a regular folder in Dropbox. The changes seem to only apply to symlinks created within dropbox.

         

         

    • niazy's avatar
      niazy
      Helpful | Level 6
      7 years ago

      I have found a workaround that may help you guys at Dropbox provide us with a more elegant solution. After creating the symlink to my Dropbox desktop folder, I locked the link file by displaying its info and checking the 'Locked' checkbox. That seems to do the trick. I checked that I can still write and save to my desktop. I have also restarted my machine (this step previously resulted in my link deleted and a new Desktop folder created) and everything is intact. 

      • malikjfernando's avatar
        malikjfernando
        Helpful | Level 5
        7 years ago

        Thanks niazy  would like some guidance on how you removed the existing desktop folder from the Mac Catalina home directory. I don't seem able to. Did you create a new desktop folder in Dropbox folder and move that locked symlink to the Mac home folder? After a restart would that delete the original desktop folder in the home folder? I'm nervous to experiment too much!

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