Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Leftium 1255 days ago
Being unable to ignore node_modules directories.

- There's no need to sync these directories. They can be recreated very quickly via `npm install` but the tons of tiny files take forever to sync.

- In addition, Dropbox locks these files causing npm to fail. So I often found myself pausing Dropbox just so I could use npm.

Fortunately, I found two solutions:

1. A script to tell DB to ignore node_modules directories based on: https://stackoverflow.com/a/69655523/117030

2. OR https://www.insynchq.com/ can be configured with .gitignore-style rules.

1 comments

I've never stored code on Dropbox. What's the use case for that? Why not store it only on Github?
1. Dropbox automatically syncs all files right away. Github requires manual push, and does not sync new/unstaged changes (like intentionally .ignored .env files).

2. Private repositories used to be a Github paid feature.

3. Less "clutter" in my Github account.

4. More generally, I keep almost all important non-OS files in Dropbox including my home directory and portable apps.

- Simple way to ensure the files I don't want to lose are backed up.

- After a fresh OS (re-)install, just installing Dropbox gets my system 90% set up and ready for use.

- (Theoretically) I can work on my files from a USB drive on any computer.