Install Dropbox On Your Server.

Start Dropbox Automatically On Boot

Dropbox provides a handy little service management script that makes it easy to start, stop and check the status of the Dropbox client.

Create a new file for the service management script

sudo vi /etc/init.d/dropbox

Paste the following script into the new file

#!/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 you replace the value ofÂ DROPBOX_USERS with a comma separated list of the linux users on your machine you want to run the Dropbox client to run for. Each user in the list should have a copy of the Dropbox files and folders that you extracted from the archive, available under their home directory.

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

Dropbox Delorean By Dropbox Artwork Team

Depending upon the number of files you have on Dropbox and the speed of your internet connection it may take some time for the Dropbox client to synchronize everything.

Check Status with Dropbox CLI

Dropbox has a command line python script available separately to provide more functionality and details on the status of the Dropbox client.

Download the dropbox.py script and adjust the file permissions

wget -O ~/.dropbox/dropbox.py "http://www.dropbox.com/download?dl=packages/dropbox.py"
chmod 755 ~/.dropbox/dropbox.py

You can download the script anywhere you like, Iâ€™ve included it along with the rest of the Dropbox files.

Now you can easily check the status of the Dropbox client

~/.dropbox/dropbox.py status
Downloading 125 files (303.9 KB/sec, 1 hr left)

Get a full list of CLI commands

~/.dropbox/dropbox.py help

Note: use dropbox help <command> to view usage for a specific command.

 status       get current status of the dropboxd
 help         provide help
 puburl       get public url of a file in your dropbox
 stop         stop dropboxd
 running      return whether dropbox is running
 start        start dropboxd
 filestatus   get current sync status of one or more files
 ls           list directory contents with current sync status
 autostart    automatically start dropbox at login
 exclude      ignores/excludes a directory from syncing

Use theÂ exclude command to keep specific files or folders from syncing to your server

~/.dropbox/dropbox.py help exclude

dropbox exclude [list]
dropbox exclude add [DIRECTORY] [DIRECTORY] ...
dropbox exclude remove [DIRECTORY] [DIRECTORY] ...

"list" prints a list of directories currently excluded from syncing.  
"add" adds one or more directories to the exclusion list, then resynchronizes Dropbox. 
"remove" removes one or more directories from the exclusion list, then resynchronizes Dropbox.
With no arguments, executes "list". 
Any specified path must be within Dropbox.

Once the Dropbox service is running and fully syncrhonized you can access all your Dropbox files and easily share files on your server with all your other Dropbox connected gadgets!

For more resources and troubleshooting tips visit theÂ Text Based Linux Install page on the Dropbox wiki and theÂ Dropbox forums. Happy syncing!

via Install Dropbox On Your Ubuntu Server (10.04, 10.10 & 11.04) | Ubuntu Server GUI.

Start Dropbox Automatically On Boot

Check Status with Dropbox CLI

Leave a Comment