When will online-only files work on Linux?

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joeytwiddle wrote:

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For anyone brave enough, I believe this is the source code, so you could try hacking that to add the "Smart Sync" feature:

https://github.com/dropbox/nautilus-dropbox

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joeytwiddle, It's not matter of "brave enough". 🙂 The sources, you posted, are about Nautilus' plugin, not any Dropbox application sources! You cannot add there any application feature (including "Smart Sync" eventually) unfortunately, but only add/change how existing Dropbox features look like in Nautilus. Those are different things. 🤷

I'm also on my way out of Dropbox because of this (really bad overall Linux support). This is my final year on a paid Dropbox plan (after a decade). I won't renew. There are both other cloud storage options these days that are both more affordable and have better Linux support.

Yes exactly. So can someone explain exactly how you would rclone/through the file manager with Dropbox? I'm assuming you cant open/edit files and then save them directly from the rclone/dropbox directory and instead you need to copy the file to locate directory, edit/save it, and then copy and overwrite back to the rclone/dropbox location so it syncs again. Is this correct or can you open/edit/save the file directly with rclone???

rclone has a UI, or rather, it works with the file manager such as nautilus.

I cancelled my paid Dropbox plan when I realised that I wouldn't actually be able to use the space on Dropbox, because it will fill up my laptop's disk.

For anyone brave enough, I believe this is the source code, so you could try hacking that to add the "Smart Sync" feature:

https://github.com/dropbox/nautilus-dropbox

Alternatively, users may try using rclone with Docker (or any remote storage provider) to get similar behaviour, albeit without a UI:
https://ostechnix.com/mount-dropbox-using-rclone-in-linux/

There are of course plenty of alternatives around now. I wonder if gitfs + git-sparse-checkout could work...

I have just looked a bit more at 'rclone' and wondering how you are getting on with this @lformaggia

Do you still have the dropbox app installed for the files/folder you are syncing, and then use rclone mounted to your dropbox files that you don't want to sync ?

or do you use rclone for everything now?

After researching rclone for a bit, it will mount your whole dropbox (or a selection) into a folder within your Linux system that you can then browse the files locally through the home directory. The same as if the files were on a USB or external drive....

However, when it comes to working with these files, i'm assuming you can't open them directly from the remote dropbox folder? In practice what you have to do is copy them directly to a directory on your own hard drive, make any changes that you need and save them. Then copy/paste back the file back to the remote rclone directory, and then it will override the file on your dropbox and sync it for any other people also using it.....

Is this correct and a practical arrangement for sharing/editing/updating files on your dropbox when you have multiple team members, using multiple operating systems?

Sorry, my bad.

I should have referenced kim b.14 with the headless reference https://smallbusiness.chron.com/headless-linux-33715.html in answer to the question posed " What is a headless setup,?"

@GrahamLees

Thanks for that but I dont think he's describing that to be honest as it doesn't make any sense in his response to "what is a headless setup"

The thread is specifically about 'smart sync'. 

What are you talking about then and why bother?

You may find this reference https://smallbusiness.chron.com/headless-linux-33715.html helpful in regards to the expression `headless` in a Linux context.