Dropbox CLI in Podman rootless

Contact: Robert Nowotniak [email protected]

If you don't want to run a proprietary and closed-source Dropbox CLI directly on your host machine, you can use this project, to run Dropbox in a podman container.

Build the image

$ git clone https://github.com/rnowotniak/podman-dropbox.git
$ cd podman-dropbox

$ podman build -t dbox . # --no-cache # (there might be a newer Dropbox version available on the upstream)
(...)

$ podman images
REPOSITORY      TAG         IMAGE ID      CREATED      SIZE
localhost/dbox  latest      9e20bf2a248b  2 hours ago  269 MB
$ _

Run the container

DROPBOX_DIR=/mnt/sata/Dropbox-podman      # it will contain Drobox installation, and Dropbox/ subdir with your files
DROPBOX_HOSTNAME=`hostname`-podman-dbox   # you will see this in your linked devices list in Drobox security panel

podman run --hostname=$DROPBOX_HOSTNAME --name dbox -d -v $DROPBOX_DIR:/root dbox

Caveat: Dropbox tries to auto-update itself on a regular basis. (see: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/dropbox#Prevent_automatic_updates ). This podman image takes care of this, and handles it accordigly (in run.sh script).

Check the Dropbox log

$ podman logs -f dbox
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._openssl.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/cryptography.hazmat.bindings._padding.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/apex._apex.abi3.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/psutil._psutil_linux.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/psutil._psutil_posix.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-170.4.5895/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
This computer isn't linked to any Dropbox account...
Please visit https://www.dropbox.com/cli_link_nonce?nonce=c95fedc977d7fbe5c079e9da28e75dbd to link this device.
This computer isn't linked to any Dropbox account...
Please visit https://www.dropbox.com/cli_link_nonce?nonce=c95fedc977d7fbe5c079e9da28e75dbd to link this device.
This computer isn't linked to any Dropbox account...
(...)

Open the link from the log, to link this container device to your Dropbox account.

$ podman logs -f dbox
(...)
This computer is now linked to Dropbox. Welcome Robert

Check Dropbox status

$ podman exec -t dbox dropbox.py
Dropbox command-line interface

commands:
Note: use dropbox help <command> to view usage for a specific command.

 autostart    automatically start Dropbox at login
 exclude      ignores/excludes a directory from syncing
 filestatus   get current sync status of one or more files
 help         provide help
 lansync      enables or disables LAN sync
 ls           list directory contents with current sync status
 proxy        set proxy settings for Dropbox
 running      return whether Dropbox is running
 sharelink    get a shared link for a file in your Dropbox
 start        start dropboxd
 status       get current status of the dropboxd
 stop         stop dropboxd
 throttle     set bandwidth limits for Dropbox
 update       download latest version of Dropbox
 version      print version information for Dropbox
$ _


$ podman exec dbox dropbox.py status
Syncing 139,954 files • 58 mins
Downloading 139,954 files (0.0 KB/sec, 58 mins)
$ _

(...)

$ podman exec dbox dropbox.py status
Up to date
$ _

(...)

$ du -sch $DROPBOX_DIR/Dropbox/
718M	/mnt/wdext/Dropbox-podman/Dropbox/
$ _

Stop and (re)start the container

Stop

$ podman exec dbox dropbox.py stop
$ podman logs -f dbox
(...)
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-183.4.7058/tornado.speedups.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
dropbox: load fq extension '/root/.dropbox-dist/dropbox-lnx.x86_64-183.4.7058/wrapt._wrappers.cpython-38-x86_64-linux-gnu.so'
USER         PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
root           1  0.0  0.0   4360  3160 ?        Ss   15:28   0:00 /bin/bash /var/tmp/run.sh
root          11  0.0  0.0   2820  1024 ?        S    15:28   0:00 tail -f nohup.out
root         135  0.0  0.0   7060  1544 ?        R    15:31   0:00 ps auxfw
No dropbox process is running, terminating the container.
$ _

$ podman ps -a -f name=dbox
CONTAINER ID  IMAGE                  COMMAND               CREATED         STATUS                    PORTS       NAMES
55a308dc5676  localhost/dbox:latest  /bin/sh -c exec /...  45 minutes ago  Exited (1) 3 minutes ago              dbox
$ _

Start the same dbox container again

$ podman start dbox
dbox
$ _

$ podman exec dbox dropbox.py status
Up to date
$ _

(Optional) Sync files selectively

Add all '*' to the exclude list, remove selected directories from the exclude list

$ cd $DROPBOX_DIR
$ podman exec -it dbox dropbox.py exclude add Dropbox/*           # exclude all
$ podman exec -it dbox dropbox.py exclude remove Dropbox/tmp      # sync selectively, remove dir from the exclude list
$ podman exec -it dbox dropbox.py exclude remove Dropbox/Photos   # sync selectively, remove dir from the exclude list

Notes

Include in the image:

1. dropbox.tgz -- download during the image build, and incorporate in the container przezimage
2. dropbox.py -- should be in the image

When the container is launched:

1. ~/.dropbox-dist - will be installed when the container is launched, from dropbox.tgz
2. start ~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd

When Dropbox daemon is started:

1. ~/.dropbox (state, settings, exclude etc) - per container, created when dropbox is started
2. ~/Dropbox (files) - db installer tries to recreate it - per container, created when dropbox is started