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

A. Get access token from Dropbox

Go to the Dropbox app console (may require login).
Click "Create app".
Select "Scoped access" (you don't have a choice).
Select "Full Dropbox".
Name your app (e.g. "Git Remote"; you need a unique name, but it doesn't matter what name you choose).
Click "Create app". You will now see a configuration page. Make sure you are on the "Settings" tab.
Scroll down to the "OAuth 2" section, and change the "Access token expiration" to "No expiration".
On the "Permissions" tab, under "Files and folders" select files.metadata.write (which also selects files.metadata.read), files.content.write, and files.content.read. Click "Submit" at the bottom. (You must make sure to do this before the next step, because changing permissions does not affect existing access tokens.)
Back on the "Settings" tab, click "Generate" under the "Generated access token" heading. Copy the generated token token. Note that it is longer than the display, so exercise care in copying all of it. Save the token in either ~/.config/git/git-remote-dropbox.json or ~/.git-remote-dropbox.json. The file looks like:
```
{
   "default": "xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
}
```

B. Local software installation

Prerequisites:
1. python and matching pip
2. git
Install this package with pip install git-remote-dropbox. Use which git-remote-dropbox to make sure it's available via $PATH. If not, edit $PATH appropriately.
Add an alias for the manager tool with git config --global alias.dropbox '!git-dropbox-manage'.

Note about access tokens

The access token you have will now enable access to your entire Dropbox, from any machine. It is valid until you either delete the app or regenerate the access token. Keep this token a secret. In particular, you should NOT share this for making a shared repo (see Sharing below for the right way to do that).
If you have multiple Dropbox accounts, this token will access only the one that was logged in when you created the Dropbox app. You can specify alternate ones in the config file and reference them via the pathname (see Multiple Accounts below).

Sharing

The above gives you a way to create a Git repository on Dropbox and use it from multiple machines that you own (that have the access token). In other words, it's a convenient way to share a remote with your laptop and your desktop.

If you want to share with other people, you should explicitly share (e.g. via the Dropbox website) the root folder of the repo with your collaborators. Then they should follow steps (A) and (B) above to generate their own access token to use git-remote-dropbox. Collaborators do not need your access token.

Multiple Accounts

git-remote-dropbox supports using multiple Dropbox accounts. You can create OAuth tokens for different accounts and add them all to the config file, using a user-defined username as the key:

{
    "alice": "xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "ben": "xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "charlie": "xxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
}

You can tell git-remote-dropbox to use the token corresponding to username by specifying a URL like dropbox://username@/path/to/repo.

You can also specify the token inline by using a URL like dropbox://:token@/path/to/repo.

Repository Manager

In addition to the git remote helper, git-remote-dropbox comes with an additional tool to manage repositories on Dropbox. This tool can be invoked as git-dropbox-manage. You can also create an alias for it with the following:

git config --global alias.dropbox '!git-dropbox-manage'

With this configuration, the tool can be invoked as git dropbox.

Currently the tool supports a single subcommand, git dropbox set-head <remote> <branch>, that can be used to set the default branch on the remote.

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.
If the remote HEAD (default branch on the remote) is not set, after cloning a repository from Dropbox, Git will not automatically check out a branch. To check out a branch, run git checkout <branch>. To set the default branch on the remote, use the git-dropbox-manage command.

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.

How can I access / recover my repository from Dropbox without using the git-remote-dropbox helper?

Because git-remote-dropbox uses an on-disk format that's compatible with Git, accessing your repository without using the helper is easy:

Download the repository data (a directory containing the objects and refs directories) from Dropbox.
Make a new directory and initialize an empty Git repository in the directory.
Overwrite .git/refs and .git/objects in your newly initialized repository with the data downloaded from Dropbox (using a command like rm -rf .git/{refs,objects} && cp -r /path/to/data/{refs,objects} .git/).
Check out a branch (using a command like git checkout -f master).
Optionally, run git gc --aggressive to save disk space in your local repository.

How do I use git-remote-dropbox from behind a proxy server?

You can use git-remote-dropbox from behind a proxy server by setting the HTTP_PROXY and HTTPS_PROXY environment variables. See here for more details.

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.

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