Hi Nobumi

I've been using Dropbox and symlinks for almost one year, now, to keep automagically in synch an iMac and a MBA

I instinctively opted for replacing with symlinks *original* folders and moving these to Dropbox (creating a "Library_synch" folder containing "Application Support", "Cache" and so on just to remember instantly where synched items came from ;-)

Not sure if it also applies to Mac OS (nor if it is true) but I think that the other way around leads to actually duplicating files on your HD. Anyway... my setup works just fine even for AddressBook, iCal and Safari

If you don't need/want your files to be accessible from anywhere around the world you may also consider Synk Pro 7 (an excellent backup software) that can work the same way Dropbox does but... only when both machines are on the same network

I'm using both ;-)

--
paolo savonuzzi

http://paolosavonuzzi.org

On giovedì 30 giugno 2011 at 04.14, [log in to unmask] wrote:

Hello,

I am sorry, this is again an OT message. Does anyone on this list use Dropbox for synchronizing your computers?

I am considering to use DropBox to synchronize my two computers, one at home and another at my work.

As DropBox allows only one folder to be synced (I have it at ~/Dropbox/), and as I don't want to change my directory structure which I am used to, I think the best would be to use symbolic links to reflect changes. I tried to read some reports on web on this kind of use of DropBox, but I am rather confused.

Some say that one should keep the original folder at the usual place in the directory structure, and make a symbolic link to it in the Dropbox folder, that is, for example:

~/Documents/myFolder/.... is the original, and
~/Dropbox/myFolder/ is the symbolic link file

And others say the contrary, that is:

~/Documents/myFolder/ is the symbolic link file, linked to
~/Dropbox/myFolder/....

It seems to me that the latter makes sense, but I am not sure.

But at the same time, I feel not very easy to use the symlink files in this way. Are they robust enough for this kind of use...?

If this works really well, I am considering to use this synchronization system, for my most important document files, my mail boxes, some of my most used applications preferences files and Application Support folders (including web browser bookmark files, etc.).

Thank you in advance for any insight.

Best regard,

Nobumi Iyanaga
Tokyo,
Japan