2

After a long search I discovered what seems to be the best practices solution for users that need to transfer files between Linux and Google Drive:

https://cyberduck.io/?l=en

The CLI version is very recent and its documentation, unclear.

The URL for Google Storage is of the form:

gs://[container]/[key]

My Google Drive account is the basic, freebie. I have looked around but don't know how to determine my [container] and [key].

TIA.

Addition:

I have found that that "[container]" is the same as a "bucket". However, the "[key]" remains as a mystery.

oleworldcoder
  • 83
  • 2
  • 10

3 Answers3

2

Per the information found here,

Google Storage and Google Drive — which storage API should my application use? Google provides two different storage services: Google Cloud Storage, and Google Drive. Both services allow programmatic access to their functionality, but the goals of the APIs are quite different. The Google Drive SDK works together with the Google Drive UI and the Chrome Web Store to create an ecosystem of apps that can be installed into Google Drive. These apps enhance the user experience by allowing users to interact with their data in novel ways. For instance, a user could install a Drive app to edit images or fax PDF files, and could create and open files with those apps directly in Google Drive.

Google Cloud Storage is intended to be accessed primarily through its API and provides all the functionality necessary for developers to use it as a backing store for their own applications. For example, a developer could store and host media and other static assets for a web game in Google Cloud Storage. Google Cloud Storage can also be used for online archives, backup replacement, and so on.

This illustrates the primary difference between the two APIs: Cloud Storage enables developers to store their application data in the Google cloud (and they’re responsible for the storage their app consumes), whereas in Drive, users allow apps to interact with the user’s private storage and content.

For an overview of Google storage options, including a video explaining the differences between the options, see Storing Your Data.

It's unlikely you can get the bucket and key id for the data you have stored in Google Drive. I would be surprised if Google used some other infrastructure for Drive vs Cloud Storage (I think Drive is built on Cloud Storage), but since Drive is essentially an app built on Cloud Storage, the buckets and keys used are not exposed to Drive usage.

Additionally, other folks seems to say the same thing as I am... Gsutil and hence the gs:// style of getting at files won't work for Google Drive.

Community
  • 1
  • 1
SimplicityGuy
  • 117
  • 2
  • 11
  • Which of these strings is the "key id" used by Google Cloud Storage? http://patriot.net/~ramon/misc/public-private-pair.png [those are **not** real digits. – oleworldcoder Apr 04 '15 at 04:22
  • 1
    That's the client_email and client_id. It's used to authenticate against Google App Engine. – SimplicityGuy Apr 04 '15 at 04:23
  • Several applications: Grive, CyberDuck, InSync provide access to **Google Drive** from the Linux CLI. All they want from me is the [bucket] and some [key]. Why would those developers bother to write something for **Google Cloud Storage** when gsutil already does the job? Are they saying: "If God gives you those 2 items, we can transfer your files"?? Something does not make sense here. (Thanks!!) – oleworldcoder Apr 04 '15 at 04:39
  • SImplicity: Please see my "Answer" in the thread that you posted: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28607388/using-gsutil-with-google-drive-not-google-cloud-storage/29442809#29442809 – oleworldcoder Apr 04 '15 at 04:50
  • According to this: https://trac.cyberduck.io/wiki/help/en/howto/googledocs support of CyberDuck for **Google Drive** is dead. – oleworldcoder Apr 04 '15 at 05:05
0

For those interested, after an arduous research, the only application which I have found to be able to connect CLI Linux and Google Drive is inSync.

https://www.insynchq.com/downloads

https://insync.io

You can try it for free for a while, and the beta versions are free as well.

It has problems, however. The 32-bit version works in 32-bit machines only. There is a 64-bit version which works only in AMD-based Linux boxes.

Their documentation is awful, but this is all you need:

% mkdir ~/MyGoogleDrive

% ./insync-portable start

[that will create a file in /tmp. Follow the instructions to get a code via web browser]

% ./insync-portable add_account  [code]   ~/MyGoogleDrive

You must be in the same directory as the program, a requirement that is denoted by the period and slash above.

The official Google utility, gsutil, only works with their paid service, Google Cloud Storage.

oleworldcoder
  • 83
  • 2
  • 10
  • In addition to the socket file /tmp/inSync500.sock (which exists as long as the application is "running"), a directory is created in ~/.config/Insysnc. If you want to start from scratch, just remove it and repeat the above instructions. – oleworldcoder Apr 06 '15 at 02:11
-1

The news is not good at all. According to this:

https://trac.cyberduck.io/wiki/help/en/howto/googledocs

CyberDuck support for Google Drive is defunct.

R.I.P.

oleworldcoder
  • 83
  • 2
  • 10