Dropbox is the best free cloud service and extremely easy-to-use tool for sharing files and syncing them between computers, and you can also use Dropbox to back up files and access them from other computers and devices (including from your Android Smartphone, android tablets and iPad or iPhone, with dedicated Client apps for each of those devices). How to make dropbox features and services available on ubuntu server?
in this post I would like to show you step by step How to Install Dropbox on Ubuntu Server 12.04 and Sync up to your Dropbox Account. Lets start it.
Installing Dorpbox on Ubuntu Server
Step 1. Download dropbox via Offically dropbox site:
Dropbox for 32-bit Architecture:
wget -O dropbox.tar.gz "http://www.dropbox.com/download/?plat=lnx.x86"
Dropbox for 64-bit Architecture:
wget -O dropbox.tar.gz "http://www.dropbox.com/download/?plat=lnx.x86_64"
Step 2. Extract Dropbox archieve with command below
tar -zxvf dropbox.tar.gz
Step 3. Run the dropbox client deamon on ubuntu server with command below:
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
Snyc Ubuntu Server with Your Dropbox Account
If your ubuntu server is not link to any dropbox account yet, so you will see the following message keep showing every few second:
Now copy and paste the link to any web browser,you can using any computer. so that it will start to link this machine to your dropbox account. You will be asking to provide your username and password in order to link this to your dropbox account.
If dropbox client on your server is successfully sync with ubuntu server you’ll see the message Client successfully linked, Welcome! and it will stop printing the authorization link, it also will automatically create a Dropbox folder under ~/Dropbox for the user you’re logged in as. Press CTRL + C to terminate the dropbox deamon process
How to Make Dropbox Start up Automatically on Boot
Create a new file in directory /etc/init.d/ give file name dropbox, it for the service management script
sudo touch /etc/init.d/dropbox
sudo nano /et/init.d/dropbox
Then Grab the following script into file /etc/init.d/dropbox
#!/bin/sh
# dropbox service
# Replace with linux users you want to run Dropbox clients for
DROPBOX_USERS="user1 user2"
DAEMON=.dropbox-dist/dropbox
start() {
echo "Starting dropbox..."
for dbuser in $DROPBOX_USERS; do
HOMEDIR=`getent passwd $dbuser | cut -d: -f6`
if [ -x $HOMEDIR/$DAEMON ]; then
HOME="$HOMEDIR" start-stop-daemon -b -o -c $dbuser -S -u $dbuser -x $HOMEDIR/$DAEMON
fi
done
}
stop() {
echo "Stopping dropbox..."
for dbuser in $DROPBOX_USERS; do
HOMEDIR=`getent passwd $dbuser | cut -d: -f6`
if [ -x $HOMEDIR/$DAEMON ]; then
start-stop-daemon -o -c $dbuser -K -u $dbuser -x $HOMEDIR/$DAEMON
fi
done
}
status() {
for dbuser in $DROPBOX_USERS; do
dbpid=`pgrep -u $dbuser dropbox`
if [ -z $dbpid ] ; then
echo "dropboxd for USER $dbuser: not running."
else
echo "dropboxd for USER $dbuser: running (pid $dbpid)"
fi
done
}
case "$1" in
start)
start
;;
stop)
stop
;;
restart|reload|force-reload)
stop
start
;;
status)
status
;;
*)
echo "Usage: /etc/init.d/dropbox {start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart|status}"
exit 1
esac
exit 0
Make sure the script is executable and add it to default system startup run levels
sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/dropbox
sudo update-rc.d dropbox defaults
Control the Dropbox client like any other Ubuntu service
sudo service dropbox start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart|status
How to Check Status Dropbox with Dropbox Python Script
Download the dropbox.py script and make the file excuteable
wget -O ~/.dropbox/dropbox.py "http://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py"
chmod +x ~/.dropbox/dropbox.py
Now you can easily check the status of the Dropbox client with following command
~/.dropbox/dropbox.py status
Get more help dropbox.py with following command
~/.dropbox/dropbox.py help
You can also use the exclude command to keep specific files or folders from syncing to ubuntu server
Tags: #Dropbox #Sync #Ubuntu Server 12.04
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