HOW TO : Sync git clients across workstations using dropbox

I have recently started using git as a source control for the various scrips that I write. As I also mentioned in this post, I use dropbox to synchronize my data across workstations. Here is my setup for synchronizing git clients across multiple workstations using the same SSH keys (note: this is not a recommended setup from a security prospective. you are recommended to generate different SSH key pairs per workstation to ensure one key getting lost doesn’t compromise your entire account).

  1. Workstation 1
    1. create a directory under your dropbox root, that you want to use as your git home directory. Say DROPBOX/git
    2. Install Git for Windows, or whatever git client you want to use
    3. Change the home path on the git client by executing [code]HOME=’PATH_TO_DROPBOX/DROPBOX/git’ [/code]
    4. Check if the home path has been changed by executing [code]echo $HOME[/code]
    5. Create your SSH keys and configure your public key on the git server
  2. Workstation 2
    1. Repeat and rinse step 1 – 4 specified for workstation 1. You don’t need to create the SSH keys since the other clients will recognize the keys that dropbox would have synced up.