How to - multiple dropbox instances in Linux? - linux

Question

After looking around online it seems pretty easy to have multiple dropbox accounts running. All you have to do is change an environmental variable and then run dropbox. However, I've tried editing the .desktop file (see .desktop file specification) so the Exec line is changed from this:
Exec=dropbox start -i
which is the default, to this:
Exec=env "HOME\=/home/reg/.dropbox-alt" dropbox start -i
which from everything I have read should work. I've also tried all the variations of escaping and quoting like:
Exec=env HOME\=/home/reg/.dropbox-alt dropbox start -i
Exec=env "HOME=/home/reg/.dropbox-alt" dropbox start -i
Exec=env HOME=/home/reg/.dropbox-alt dropbox start -i
and nothing seems to launch dropbox. However if I try the same line in bash it tries to launch but falls short but that's only because dropbox is looking for a GUI. That being the case I would have thought that doing the above in the .desktop file would work but I get nothing at all happening.
I'm doing this without any dropbox instances running already so it cannot be that dropbox is looking for other instances and stopping itself from loading another instance.
If I try this in the .desktop file:
Exec=env dropbox start -i
It will launch dropbox but now it's the default instance which has no benefit.
Can anyone tell me what I'm missing to make this work?

Answer 1

Open a terminal and paste the following commands:
$ mkdir "$HOME"/.dropbox-alt
$ ln -s "$HOME/.Xauthority" "$HOME/.dropbox-alt/"
$ HOME="$HOME/.dropbox-alt"
$ /home/$USER/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
Dropbox setup wizard window will appear. Finish the setup similarly as described in Method -1
start Dropbox from terminal
$ /home/$USER/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
start Alternate-Dropbox from terminal
$ HOME="$HOME/.dropbox-alt" && /home/$USER/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd
Note:
You can create a small script with the above commands to start Dropbox.
One can put the script at startup. Don't forget to give the script execution permission.
chmod +x /path/to/script
I have tested the second method. Hope it will be useful.

Answer 2

#!/bin/bash
HOME_DIR=$HOME
DROPBOXES=("$HOME/.dropboxes/personal" "$HOME/.dropboxes/business")
function start_dropbox() {
HOME=$HOME_DIR
local flag
local home_dir
local OPTIND;
local verbose=0
local wait=0
while getopts p:vw opt; do
case $opt in
p) home_dir="$(echo $OPTARG | sed 's:/*$::')/" ;;
v) verbose=1 ;;
w) wait=1 ;;
*) ;;
esac
done
shift $((OPTIND-1))
# Test if the process is already running
local pid=$(ps aux|grep "${home_dir}.dropbox-dist"|grep -v 'grep'|tr -s ' '| cut -d' ' -f 2)
if [ -n "$pid" ]
then
echo "Process already running with home dir. of: $home_dir"
return 8 # Process already running
fi
# Create home directory if it doesn't exist
if [ ! -e "$home_dir" ]
then
if mkdir -p "$home_dir";
then
echo "Created directory: $home_dir"
else
echo "Failed to create directory: $home_dir"
return 9 # Failed
fi
fi
# Set up so works with GUI from command line
xauthority="${home_dir}.Xauthority"
if [ ! -e "$xauthority" ]
then
ln -s "$HOME/.Xauthority" "$xauthority"
fi
HOME="$home_dir"
# Start the dropbox daemon
if [[ $verbose -gt 0 ]]; then
echo '~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd & '$home_dir
fi
~/.dropbox-dist/dropboxd &
if [[ $wait -eq 0 ]]; then
sleep 2 # Give each instance time to startup completely before starting another one
else
read -n 1 -s -p 'Press any key to continue.'
echo
fi
}
function start_dropboxes() {
local dropbox
for dropbox in "${DROPBOXES[#]}"
do
start_dropbox $# -p "$dropbox"
done
}
#
# For testing & setup we can choose just one to startup
#
while getopts f:wv opt; do
case $opt in
f) start_dropbox -p "${DROPBOXES[$OPTARG]}" # NOTE: bash array indexes start at 0.
exit ;;
*) ;;
esac
done
OPTIND=1
start_dropboxes $#

Answer 3

Not being able to install multiple instances of same software on a single machine is a typical case of what is called as Software Conflict where two such instances would compete for resources such as memory, peripheral device, register, network port, etc.
However, we could use a container-based virtualization technology called as Docker to run multiple instances of a software on the same machine in loosely isolated environments called as Containers.
The best part of this solution is that it would work on any platform, as containers are meant to portable.
I recently wrote a blog on it, explaining steps to containerise dropbox instances using docker.