dropblock-cli 1.0.0

A cross-platform CLI tool to ignore files and folders in Dropbox

dropblock

A cross-platform CLI tool to ignore or unblock files and folders in Dropbox using platform-specific methods.

Features

• Cross-platform support (Windows, macOS, Linux)
• Wildcard and glob pattern support
• Automatic detection and removal of Dropbox conflicted copies
• Batch processing of multiple paths
• Unblock (reverse) operation to restore syncing
• Verbose and quiet modes

Installation

pip install -e .

Or for system-wide installation:

pip install .

Usage

Basic usage

Ignore a single file or folder:

dropblock /path/to/file
dropblock /path/to/folder

Multiple paths

Ignore multiple files/folders:

dropblock file1.txt folder1 file2.pdf

Wildcard patterns

Ignore parent folder (path ending with *):

dropblock /path/to/folder/*

Ignore files matching a pattern:

dropblock /path/*/specific/file.txt
dropblock /home/user/*/node_modules

Options

• --ignore-conflicts: Don't remove conflicted copies
• -n, --no-output: Suppress the list of ignored files
• -v, --verbose: Show verbose output

Examples

# Ignore node_modules in all projects
dropblock ~/projects/*/node_modules

# Ignore a folder and don't remove conflicts
dropblock --ignore-conflicts ~/Dropbox/large-folder

# Quiet mode - no output
dropblock -n ~/Dropbox/temp/*

# Verbose mode
dropblock -v ~/Dropbox/cache ~/Dropbox/logs

How it works

The tool uses platform-specific methods to set the ignore attribute:

• Windows: Uses PowerShell to set the com.dropbox.ignored stream
• macOS: Uses xattr to set either com.apple.fileprovider.ignore#P (File Provider) or com.dropbox.ignored
• Linux: Uses xattr or attr command to set com.dropbox.ignored

Conflict handling

By default, the tool automatically detects and removes Dropbox conflicted copies (files matching the pattern filename (user's conflicted copy date).ext). Use --ignore-conflicts to disable this behavior.

Requirements

• Python 3.6+
• Platform-specific tools:
  • Windows: PowerShell
  • macOS: xattr (built-in)
  • Linux: xattr or attr package

License

MIT