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Several questions here already asked about using Dropbox to host a bare repo.

My question is different and much simpler. I am a social scientist with small code -- I keep all of my data and code on Dropbox, synced on home and work computers. Can I just use GIT to version control without a remote repo?

Since all the .git files are synced, along with my actual files, the local working repos in all of my Dropbox folders (at home and work) are identical and functional, correct?

Heisenberg
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  • It might work, but something about just feels **so wrong**... – Makoto May 27 '13 at 02:50
  • Well, please upvote so that someone more knowledgeable can answer for us. Most social scientists have projects small enough that everything can be kept on dropbox -- pushing and pulling to a remote repo is really extraneous. – Heisenberg May 27 '13 at 02:53
  • It's not that I'm not knowledgeable, it's just that Git is by nature a distributed VCS. It works *very well* with remote repos, and hosting a remote repository is free with Github. Again, I don't think that there would be a problem with doing it like this, but it just feels wrong. – Makoto May 27 '13 at 02:56
  • So technically, everything should work fine? I can't use Github since my codes are for unpublished papers. All of my data and codes are on dropbox already so I hope to minimize moving. – Heisenberg May 27 '13 at 02:59
  • You should use bitbucket then. They have free, private repos. I think you'd end up really regretting using dropbox and got together. They will conflict with each other and possibly cause data loss. – Matt Greer May 27 '13 at 03:30
  • http://stackoverflow.com/a/1961515/1615903 - pay attention to the comments - the internal conflict-resolving of DropBox will cause you trouble eventually. Go with a git hosting site as suggested here. – 1615903 May 27 '13 at 04:35

1 Answers1

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You can try using bitbucket.org for git hosting. I allows private git and mercurial repositories. It sounds like it would be a better experience than using dropbox.

cforbish
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  • How about this: Can I use local working repo outside dropbox, have bare repo in Dropbox (& synced over all computers). Then whenever I get home or go to work, I can start my day with a fetch from Dropbox to local working repo. That sounds like just one extra step each day, right? – Heisenberg May 27 '13 at 03:36
  • I do not know enough about how drop box works to answer this question. But you can try looking at [this](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1960799/using-git-and-dropbox-together-effectively) other post. – cforbish May 27 '13 at 04:04