David Herrold

Back ups outside of Dropbox

Posted by Dave | Filed under Apple, Linux, Productivity, Software

I’m a pretty big fan of DropBox, the remote back up service with version control and file sharing.  It works on Mac, Linux and Windows.  I use it nearly every day to back up important files and pass documents to colleagues in a safe version-controlled environment.  (I wrote a brief explanation of DropBox last summer if you’re interested.)  There is also a web interface that allows access to your files no matter what computer you happen to be using at the time.

The only problem I saw with the service was its inability to back up files residing outside your DropBox folder.

I found a solution to this problem recently on the DropBox wiki.  The solution is brilliantly simple, but requires a short Terminal command to create a symbolic link.  Let’s say you would like to back up a folder called “Projects” that lives inside your “Documents” folder.  Open your Terminal and type the following command:

This command will create a symbolic link of your Projects folder into your DropBox. I have tested this in Mac OSX and Linux (Ubuntu) and it works beautifully.  There is a hack to make it work in Windows as well.

By the way, I’m not affiliated with DropBox in any way, I just happen to think it’s a beautiful piece of software.

If you’re interested, you can get a free DropBox account here.

If you already have a DropBox account, do you have any tips or tricks to share in the comments?

Tags: backup, dropbox, Linux, OSX, version control