We're making changes to the Community, so you may have received some notifications - thanks for your patience and welcome back. Learn more here.
Forum Discussion
How to ignore node_modules folder (symlink / alias)
Due to a bug in the dropboxforum.com site :see_no_evil:, this solution has been re-posted here:
Lusil, , Thank you. Indeed, I have seen that thread and upvoted it under different usernames over the years, but the semi-solution stopped working recently, which was always unclear and painful to execute across all projects and all dev systems anyway. Yes, I can make a post over there referencing this one.
I could not agree more that a .dropboxignore file is the most desirable solution, just like the .gitignore file, which is a simple and proven pattern already used by developers globally. Because it’s an invisible file, it would not confuse the general population of Dropbox users. A system-wide .dropboxignore or regex would be equally welcome.
In that thread, the Swap-a-Roo Ignore hack (as I call it) is what I’ve done for years, but it was error prone and horridly painful to manage across ALL projects on ALL your personal dev systems. For some reason it stopped working recently due to a version update or something on my systems, resulting in an infinite loop hack-hell of conflicting folders, deleted folders, etc. The Swap-a-Roo Ignore was also impractical because if you just want to throw together a quick test project, you had to race through executing the multi-step Swap-a-Roo Ignore hack on all your systems to avoid the MASSIVE recurring syncs. So, I NEVER EVER put ANY test projects in Dropbox, which unfortunately resulted in not have them when I need them.
That thread has gotten a lot of attention over the years along, plus posts on other forums which are confusing, hacks, or simply bad advice.
Hopefully Dropbox will add a .dropboxignore feature. I would encourage the community of developers inside and outside of Dropbox to do everything possible, including a twirling dervish, to get this functionality. It’s been too many years to .ignore ;-)
In the meantime — I hope my post offers a quick straight forward solution for other developers with multiple systems who what to use Dropbox, but cannot.
- Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Hey sebastian_, thanks for sharing your feedback with us - awesome work!
You could also have a look at this thread where other users have shared their thoughts on ignoring a folder within the desktop app, in case you'd like to contribute there too.
If you have any other comments for us, just give us a shout. In the meantime, have a lovely day ahead!
Lusil, , Thank you. Indeed, I have seen that thread and upvoted it under different usernames over the years, but the semi-solution stopped working recently, which was always unclear and painful to execute across all projects and all dev systems anyway. Yes, I can make a post over there referencing this one.
I could not agree more that a .dropboxignore file is the most desirable solution, just like the .gitignore file, which is a simple and proven pattern already used by developers globally. Because it’s an invisible file, it would not confuse the general population of Dropbox users. A system-wide .dropboxignore or regex would be equally welcome.
In that thread, the Swap-a-Roo Ignore hack (as I call it) is what I’ve done for years, but it was error prone and horridly painful to manage across ALL projects on ALL your personal dev systems. For some reason it stopped working recently due to a version update or something on my systems, resulting in an infinite loop hack-hell of conflicting folders, deleted folders, etc. The Swap-a-Roo Ignore was also impractical because if you just want to throw together a quick test project, you had to race through executing the multi-step Swap-a-Roo Ignore hack on all your systems to avoid the MASSIVE recurring syncs. So, I NEVER EVER put ANY test projects in Dropbox, which unfortunately resulted in not have them when I need them.
That thread has gotten a lot of attention over the years along, plus posts on other forums which are confusing, hacks, or simply bad advice.
Hopefully Dropbox will add a .dropboxignore feature. I would encourage the community of developers inside and outside of Dropbox to do everything possible, including a twirling dervish, to get this functionality. It’s been too many years to .ignore ;-)
In the meantime — I hope my post offers a quick straight forward solution for other developers with multiple systems who what to use Dropbox, but cannot.Lusil, it appears you are a commiunity moderator -- please, help. I have posted to the thread you suggested with a link to here. However, people cannot access the link back to this thread. Maybe I'm using the wrong link.
Also, using the email feature on this thread emails out a dead community link. How can this be fixed? How can this solution thread be elevated and made readable for general public consumption by non-users or via incognito mode? Should I have posted this solution to another area, and if so, where?
Thanks for any help.
- Daphne
Hey sebastian_, I've just been doing some tests on our side!
So firstly, it's indeed very strange that we're getting an error when trying to open this thread when signed out. This is something that I've not seen before. :thinking:
Any posts here within the Community are available to see for everyone as you don't need to be signed in to view threads and posts. You only need to be signed in to post.
After a few tests, it seems I'm still getting the error here too so I want to assure you that we're looking into this. It's definitely not expected!
Please bear with us while we figure this out and let us know if there's any changes in the meantime.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
