me and my team have been trying to set up a version control repository in Dropbox, but we've run into a strange snag, not sure if it's because of Dropbox or not, but the gitignore file is being, well, ignored. We're working on windows 7, and we've tried most of the fixes we've found on .gitignore is not working but seems that none help, would you guys have any ideas on a fix, or recommend version/source control that plays well with Dropbox?
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Git and Dropbox are technologies that don't play well together. In Git, everything is local and on purpose. This means that you can locally make your changes, commit when your done and push it in a shared place, where others can access it. This is how source code is developed.
Dropbox is more about writing and sharing documents. You do not have control about what is shared with others, as Dropbox continuously syncs. This can lead to a coworker suddenly getting a changed file by you, which breaks his work.
Furthermore you can no longer make use of branches, as all coworkers have the same Dropbox folder, ergo working tree and this means that all have the same branch. No way for a user to test on a local branch.
You should ask yourself the question whether you are developing documents (Text, Spreadsheet, etc.) or Source Code. If its the latter, prefer Git otherwise use Dropbox. If you need free of charge collaboration for Git, use:
- GitHub (problematic, if you need private repositories and are not a student)
- BitBucket (allows private repositories, but limits collaborator count)
- GitLab (if you have a server at your disposal or want to use their hosted service)
- or similar services (there are many out there if you search for "Git repo").
Greg
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Netzdoktor
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It works well enough the way we're using it, we managed to fix the issue though, thanks for your help anyway! :) – Goldblaze Aug 16 '15 at 15:37
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I just wanted to point that out, so you are not disappointed later, when you realize that some things aren't that optimal in this setup ;-) – Netzdoktor Aug 16 '15 at 15:48
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Well, when we have money to buy a server, and unity's built in version control, we'll likely go ta route, or some other kind of version control that my developer likes more then git(he despises git right now because he says the creator doesn't create with end user in mind.) But we have to stick with free stuff right now. I will note that there's lot of good tricks for getting git to work with dropbox, we go with a git clone method, cloning the repo to the local computer. And who knows, maybe dropbox will offer true version control in the near future.(they seem to be looking at that option.) – Goldblaze Aug 16 '15 at 15:57
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With the help of a friend on twitter, we fixed the issue, the issue wasn't Dropbox so much as the filename of the gitignore (we had named it unity.gitignore) It had to be named .gitignore (if you're a windows user, try naming it .gitignore. to get passed the windows error saying "You must type a filename.)" That fixed all the issues we were having! :)