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How to make Dropbox ignore node_modules folder with symbolic links (aliases)
PROBLEM
Dropbox does not currently provide an ignore file/folder feature that enables a locally-unique instance to exist on each machine. One important use of this is the “node_moduels" folder ...
NOTE: The Initial Post on this thread IS the Solution. While the technique specifically targets the node_modules folder in Javascript / TypeScript projects, it can also be applied to any "folders" that need to be ignored (see bottom of this post for a drag-n-drop technique).
HOW IT WORKS
Because Dropbox does not synchronize folders referened by symlinks (aliases), you can move those folders into a NON-DROPBOX path (outside of dropbox), then create a symlink (alias) in the original Dropbox location.
RESULT
The ignored folder in Dropbox looks and behaves as normal folder, but in reality the data lives in a non-synchronized location on the storage device.
HOW TO IGNORE ANY FOLDER (THE DRAG-N-DROP WAY)
- Move the folder to ignore "Outside of Dropbox" into another location (e.g. ~/Documents)
- In Finder (Mac OS), Command+Option Drag the folder back into Dropbox to create an alias. The cursor should turn into a little curved arrow while dragging if you have the right keys pressed. Once dropped, an alias will be created in the original Dropbox location pointing to the moved folder.
NOTE: Using symlinks/aliases on Windows and Linux should behave the same way, but I have not verified it. Also, I've updated the original post to state that the tiny symlink (alias) file itself "IS" copied to all systems, but not the content of the folder.
..sebastian
Symlinks are probably the best general solution. For developers using Git, you have another option. If you are fanatic about creating great git history/commit log for your changes, then you should try using `git worktree add ../projectA-dupe` which will create a duplicate folder that's a sibling to your current git repo. It's actually another "working directory" in proper git terms. It's the same git repo, all the same branches, same stashes, all the git info is the same. Actually the .git dir for "projectA-dupe" basically just points to your original git repo's .git folder. The advantage here, the workflow, is to have your main working directory outside of dropbox entirely, and then add another "working directory" or "worktree" inside your dropbox folder, which will sync. Or, vice versa. You could have the main git repo be inside dropbox, but, setup an npm pre-install hook to fail installation if it sees "Dropbox" is in your current folder path. All developers are instructed to cd to the main git repo inside Dropbox, and then run `git worktree add ../../path/to/your/projectA`. Furthermore, you could have everyone keep their worktree inside dropbox, which means they could all collaborate without ever doing a git push/pull/fetch, by simply allowing dropbox to sync all the git objects. One developer could help another simply by cd'ing to their worktree inside of dropbox. They see the exact same thing, no need to stash changes, commit anything, etc. The symlink might as well be committed into the git repo, and point to a globally reliable path, like ~/universal_node_modules/projectA. Better than all that, probably use yarn v2, and inside .yarnrc.yml set cacheDirectory to be something like ~/Dropbox/.yarn-cache/projectA, so all worktree's can share the same cache.
I've recently implemented dropboxignore which is a simple shell script which facilitates you to generate .dropboxignore files based on your file patterns or even based on existing .gitignore files and ignore matched files from dropbox. Hope to find it useful for your case. Any feedback is more than welcome. dropboxignore is currently available only for Mac OS and Linux.
