Using Subversion with DropBox

Question

Is it a bad idea to use DropBox as a backup system for Subversion repositories?

Has anyone tried using Subversion with an an online file sharing utility like DropBox? What's your experiences?

My concern is whether this will work - mainly because Subversion maintains locks and it's very specific about it. I'm not sure if DropBox and Subversion can both work together?

p.s. I'm thinking of using this for my Xcode projects, and no, i don't want to use github because it's not free - you can't keep your repositories Private with the free account (and other reasons).

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References:

DropBox (file sync, sharing, and online backup)

Subversion (open source version control system)

Solution 1

I've got Dropbox, SVN and Xcode working fine here, I've had no problems what so ever.

You don't even need to be careful about which machine you commit/update from as Dropbox keeps EVERYTHING synchronised.

Solution 2

My suggestion is to use dropbox together with an encryption tool such as TrueCrypt. In this way you would have a safe storage on the cloud.

SVN works perfectly in a TrueCrypt disk.

If you need to access the repository at the same time on multiple location I would recommend of using a subversion host provider. DropBox can get confused if two persons are modifying the same file at once.

http://wiki.dropbox.com/TipsAndTricks/IncreasePrivacyAndSafety

http://www.randomwire.com/storing-sensitive-data-in-the-cloud

Solution 3

Why to use SVN inside Dropbox? Instead, you can use your own SVN server with Dropbox-like interface: EasySVN from Assembla or IQBox-SVN.

Solution 4

May be this will help you. I have put SVN Reposiroty inside of a Dropbox Folder. http://foyzulkarim.blogspot.com/2012/12/dropbox-as-svn-repository.html

Solution 5

You can simply exclude the .svn-Folder from Dropbox: (instructions for Mac)

1. You need to see the .svn-Folder, so go into Terminal and execute

   defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
   killall Finder
   

2. Go to your Folder an Copy the .svn-Folder somewhere else

3. Go to your Dropbox-Preferences > Advanced > Selective Sync and deactivate to .svn-Folder

4. The Folder should now be deleted from your HD and Dropbox, you can check that on the website.

5. Put your copy of the .svn-Folder back into the directory. You should see a little gray sign like (-)

6. Revert step 1 with

   defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles NO
   killall Finder
   

7. That's it!

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Comments

[Mustafa]

How about when more that one people are working on a project and they are both continuously committing changes to the Subversion repository and fetching updates as well? I fear that subversion may experience locking issue OR DropBox may experience locking issue while updating. Any thoughts on that?

[James]

I only use Dropbox to keep 2 machines synchronised so I can't really comment but I can't see why there would be any problems, all Dropbox does is sync any changes files, it doesn't seem to hold any locks on them. I wouldn't however want to use Dropbox to sync source code between a team, there is no versioning or blame/praise logs.

[dawez]

Initial Dropbox account is 2GB

[cregox]

yet... That's dropbox next step to conquer the world (I hope). :P

[BadPirate]

If security is a concern, You could also put your SVN repository onto an encrypted disk image that you could then put on the dropbox :)

[dawez]

Just found this one today: webupd8.org/2011/06/encrypt-your-private-dropbox-data-with.h‌​tml . Encfs. Seems to be quite close what I was looking for [you can encrypt specific folders of your Dropbox].

[dawez]

update to previous comment: When using ENCFS with dropbox be sure that the dropbox and encfs are started in the right order otherwise disasters can happen. More info : forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=15065

[SkyWalker]

There is no next step, Dropbox already conquered the world :)

[SimonT]

If you mean to create a TrueCrypt encrypted file container, then the potential issue with that is that a very large file would have to be re-uploaded for every small modification, unless Dropbox is able to send only the changed parts of the file.

[user777304]

Wao.. Could you please how I can setup Dropbox, SVN and Xcode. I am new in subversioning. thanks

[dawez]

@SimonT seems that dropbox is just uploading the changed part. However a small change inside a file that is contained in a encrypted disk, can result in a larger change.