Folder symbolic links

[coolxal]

Is there a way to make symbolic links in Android?

I want a folder /mnt/sdcard/abc to be the same as /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox/abc so if I change anything in one folder, it's the same in the other one.

 

[chanchan05]

I dont know of how to do that, bit SugarSync lets you sync any existing folder from your phone to cloud, instead of only one folder. It handles multiple folders as well.

 

[Crashdamage]

You can use Dropsync to auto-sync /mnt/sdcard/abc to a folder in your Dropbox then sync that folder to /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox/abc.

I don't know of a way to sync the the two directly. The FAT32 file system used on SD cards does not support symlinks. I don't think Android allows non-root users to create symlinks anyway.

 

[coolxal]

You can use Dropsync to auto-sync /mnt/sdcard/abc to a folder in your Dropbox then sync that folder to /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox/abc.

I don't know of a way to sync the the two directly. The FAT32 file system used on SD cards does not support symlinks. I don't think Android allows non-root users to create symlinks anyway.

I'm already using Dropsync. I have the root Dropbox folder synced to /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox and /mnt/sdcard/abc synced to the Dropbox abc folder but the problem is that since I have the root folder synced, I sync and upload /mnt/sdcard/abc to Dropbox abc folder then Dropbox syncs the abc folder to /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox/abc because that folder doesn't exist in /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox so the abc folder is duplicated.

Unless there's a way for Dropsync to sync the root folder but allow me to exclude specific folders.

It'd be tedious to make a folder sync for each individual folder plus new folders won't be synced.

 

[chanchan05]

Unless there's a way for Dropsync to sync the root folder but allow me to exclude specific folders.

Any reason for just not using another sync service? This is a native feature for Sugarsync.

Lets say you want to send /mnt/sdcard/abc to cloud for syncing. On sugarsync app, just navigate to /mnt/sdcard/abc and click on "sync", and it will sync straight to cloud and on your PC. And you can do that to multiple folders.

 

[Crashdamage]

@chanchan05: If you think about exactly what coolxal is trying to do, including syncing his root cloud directory, changing cloud services won't make any difference. Anyway, Dropsync duplicates the functionality of Sugarsync on phones with Dropbox. That's one reason I deleted my Sugarsync account.

As long as he syncs the entire root Dropbox directory I'm stuck on a solution. Or maybe I'm just too thick to think this through correctly...

 

[chanchan05]

He wants to sync several folders but exclude some: Basically easy task on Sugarsync but you guys seem to be having problems doing it on Dropsync.

 

[Crashdamage]

Excluding folders is not the problem. Dropbox/Dropsync is not the problem. The problem is what he wants to do means syncing some folders twice to different locations but without generating duplicates. IOW if excluded in one of those syncs, not everything will go where he wants. If included some gets duplicated.

Read it again. It's a goofy problem. I don't see how he can have it both ways.

 

[coolxal]

No... I don't want to sync folders twice to different locations. What I initially wanted was to create symbolic links which is what I have on my PC.

I can have a folder C:\Documents\Projects\abc and make abc link to C:\Dropbox\abc. They both reference the same location. That doesn't seem to be supported though (I'm rooted and on CM7).

What I was hoping for was that Dropsync allow me to specify certain "rules" on syncing. Sync /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox to / BUT exclude /abc from syncing to /mnt/sdcard/Dropbox. Then add another rule to sync /mnt/sdcard/abc to /abc. Kinda similar to e-mail filters.

It's actually not that complicated of a problem. The Dropbox desktop app allows selective sync in the Dropbox folder and there's an addon for Dropbox called "Dropbox Folder Sync" that does exactly what I'm specifying here.

Alternatively one-way syncing for specific folders would work also. I just need to upload changes in abc on the phone to abc on Dropbox... but Dropbox doesn't support one-way syncing...

Well anyways, reason I don't use SugarSync is cause I'm used to Dropbox and I racked up 20 GB of free storage from referrals... seems like there's more flexibility in SugarSync I guess I'll try it out.

Thanks.

 

[blksith0]

bump

 

[codesplice]

@blksith0 If you're looking for a solution similar to what coolxal was after (almost three years ago, so you may be better off posting your specific needs in a separate thread), you might want to check out FolderSync. It allows for some really flexible filters and rules for what folders should be synced and under what conditions.