

How to use Dropbox as a git server? - joemanaco
http://www.intermediaware.com/blog/1085

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wladimir
Do note that, with multiple users that have write access and push at the same
time, this can result in race conditions and corrupted repositories. So only
use this for a personal repository, or when the others only have read access.

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mbreese
Not only that, but you could have multiple users to begin with. Since all
files are synced on save, two people couldn't be working at the same time.
Well, I guess they could, but good luck editing the same file. Or even trying
to commit. You could easily overwrite the other persons files without knowing
it.

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almost
Article could be summarized to one sentence "Put your git repo in your
Dropbox". It does also go on to suggest that you share this folder with other
Dropbox users but that's a bad idea. Even single users can end up with
problems if they use multiple machines, git doesn't understand Dropbox's
method of dealing with conflicts.

~~~
agnoster
Yeah, I think people may be overthinking this, although there's something to
be said for "two great tastes that taste great together". It's kind of silly,
but I actually wrote a "git dropbox" command to just stuff a bare repo of what
I'm doing in my Dropbox so I don't have to think about it... and I kind of
like it. Maybe it's overkill, but if I only have to type one command, it's
easy enough I won't think about it :-) (<https://github.com/agnoster/git-
dropbox/> for what it's worth)

Agreed it's a dangerous idea for collaboration, unless you are the only one
pushing to it and everyone else just pulls. That could work as a simple way to
make your git repo pull-accessible to others without using a separate service
or server (assuming you both have Dropbox already, of course).

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philjackson
This seems like a terrible idea. Not sure why it's getting so much attention,
is it just because Dropbox is mentioned?

<https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitHosting> is where I would say people
should start if they want to host a .git.

~~~
3am
I completely agree. This is a perfect example of 'just because you can do it
doesn't mean you should'.

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wccrawford
I think calling it a 'git server' is a bit much. Its only feature is to sync
the repo between different computers. As wladimir pointed out, it's not even
reliable when you have multiple committers.

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remi
How is this different from <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2229756>
(still on the frontpage) ?

~~~
mrpollo
its not...

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kjhgfhjkhgfv
It does work for a central 'master' repository that people push/pull rarely
when new versions are done but otherwise it's only good for a single user.

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joemanaco
hmmm.... I've used that together with a friend for quite some time now and we
never had problems. I assume we were just lucky. Thank you people, for
clearing that up.

And yes, of course you're right, it's not really a server.

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JoelMcCracken
I've been doing this for a while now. I didn't even think anything of it.

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wtn
Next post: How to use Gitosis as a git server

