Using Subversion with DropBox

Question

Is it a bad idea to use DropBox as a backup system for Subversion repositories?

Has anyone tried using Subversion with an an online file sharing utility like DropBox? Wh

Answer 1

Depending on how many files you are syncing it may end up doing a lot of file transferring. (Remember, you only have 200MB on Dropbox without any additional storage bonuses on the free account.) This means all the .svn (or _svn) files will also be synced, in effect doubling the amount of files it needs to keep updated.

If you don't need to move whole directories around in your tree once the initial sync is complete, then transfers should be respectable.

I've tried this myself for some projects and it worked okay, but in the end I think the best way to use Subversion repositories and Dropbox together is to use them for deployment builds. I wouldn't just set Dropbox to sync with my working folder. Use Dropbox to sync up at the end of the day by copying in the working folder to the actual Dropbox folder at scheduled intervals, thereby limiting the amount of constant network traffic the former might incur.