Centos 6/RHEL install Dropbox

Dropbox is a file storing service which syncronises across all your devices for quick and easy access to your stored files.

It has a free service that lets you bring all your photos, docs, and videos anywhere. This means that any file you save to your Dropbox will automatically save to all your computers, phones and the Dropbox website.

Dropbox also makes it easy to share with others, whether you're a student or professional. You can relax knowing none of your important files will ever be lost.

Initial free storage is 2GB but this can be increased by taking part in a few simple challenges and recommending friends to the service. It can easily be raised to around 3-5GB depending  on how many friends you have.

Installing it, setting up and using it on Centos 6/RHEL is simple to do with just 2 commands. Make sure you have wget first though.

$ sudo yum -y install wget

For 32 bit systems

$ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86" | tar xzf -

For 64 bit systems

$ cd ~ && wget -O - "https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64" | tar xzf -

This will install Dropbox on your system with hidden folders in your home directory and a main Dropbox folder.

Anything you drop into this folder is automatically saved to your account, so you can access files from anywhere with any device.

Now we run the Dropbox daemon

$ ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

This starts the daemon and a series of dialogue boxes to set up your preferences and other details.

There is also a little python script which you can use to control the daemon if you wish, download it from dropbox.py

and run it as an unprivileged user (after making it executable).

$ chmod u+x dropbox.py

$ ./dropbox.py start                 start the daemon

$ ./dropbox.py stop                  stop the daemon  

$ ./dropbox.py help                  other commands

You would probably use the start function most of the time, as to stop it you can just exit the icon which appears in the system tray. 

One of the first things to do is put the KeepassX password database file in the Dropbox folder, which I'd definitely recommend doing, as this will be synced regularly by the application so whenever you add a new password it is available from any device on which you have installed the Dropbox app.

Fluxbox users see Fluxbox key bindings for more information, an example shortcut is shown below, put it in the "keys" file.

Mod1 d : ExecCommand /home/<user>/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

Then 'Alt d' will fire it up.

Plenty of things you can do with Dropbox and a tour of the web site will give you some ideas.