maestral 0.2.6

Open-source Dropbox client for macOS and Linux.

Maestral

A light-weight and open-source Dropbox client for macOS and Linux.

About

Maestral is an open-source Dropbox client written in Python. The project's main goal is to provide a client for platforms and file systems that are no longer directly supported by Dropbox.

Currently, Maestral does not support Dropbox Paper, the management of Dropbox teams and the management of shared folder settings. If you need any of this functionality, please use the Dropbox website or the official client. Since Maestral aims to be compatible with as many systems as possible, it does not integrate with file managers: there are no badges to indicate the sync status of folders or files.

The focus on "simple" file syncing does come with advantages: the Maestral App on macOS is 80% smaller than the official Dropbox app (50 MB vs 290 MB) and uses 70% less memory. The app size and memory footprint can be further reduced when installing and running Maestral without a GUI and using the Python installation provided by your OS. The Maestral code itself and its Python dependencies take up less than 3 MB, making a headless install ideal for systems with tight resources.

Installation

A binary is provided for macOS High Sierra and higher and can be downloaded from the Releases tab. On other platforms, download and install the Python package from PyPI by running

$ python3 -m pip install --upgrade maestral

in the command line. If you intend to use the graphical user interface, you also need to install PyQt5. I highly recommend installing PyQt5 through your distribution's package manager (e.g., yum, dnf, apt-get, homebrew). Alternatively, you can also get it from PyPI:

$ python3 -m pip install --upgrade PyQt5

However, in this case the interface style may not follow your selected system appearance (e.g., "dark mode" on macOS or "Adwaita-dark" on Gnome).

If you clone and install the version from GitHub, you will need to provide your own Dropbox API keys as environment variables DROPBOX_API_KEY and DROPBOX_API_SECRET. You can get those keys here.

Usage

Run maestral gui in the command line (or open the Maestral app on macOS) to start Maestral with a graphical user interface. On its first run, Maestral will guide you through linking and configuring your Dropbox and will then start syncing.

Command line usage

After installation, Maestral will be available as a command line script by typing maestral in the command prompt. Command line functionality resembles that of the interactive client. Type maestral --help to get a full list of available commands. Invoking maestral sync will configure Maestral on first run and then automatically start syncing.

Interactive usage (Python shell)

After installation, in a Python command prompt, run

>>> from maestral import Maestral
>>> m = Maestral()

On initial use, Maestral will ask you to link your Dropbox account, give the location of your Dropbox folder on the local drive, and to specify excluded folders. It will then start syncing. Supported commands include:

>>> m.pause_sync()  # pause syncing
>>> m.resume_sync()  # resume syncing

>>> path = '/Folder/On/Dropbox'  # path relative to Dropbox folder
>>> m.exclude_folder(path)  # exclude Dropbox folder from sync, delete locally
>>> m.include_folder(path)  # include Dropbox folder in sync, download its contents

>>> m.set_dropbox_directory('~/Dropbox')  # give path for local Dropbox folder
>>> m.unlink()  # unlinks your Dropbox account but keeps all your files

Structure

maestral.client handles all the interaction with the Dropbox API such as authentication, uploading and downloading files and folders, getting metadata and listing folder contents.

maestral.monitor handles the actual syncing. It monitors the local Dropbox folder and the remote Dropbox for changes and syncs them using the interface provided by maestral.client.

maestral.main provides the main programmatic user interface. It links your Dropbox account, sets up your local folder and lets you select which folders to sync.

maestral.gui contains all graphical user interfaces for Maestral.

Contribute

The following tasks could need your help:

• Write tests for maestral.
• Detect and warn in case of unsupported Dropbox folder locations (network drives, external hard drives, etc).
• Speed up downloads of large folders and initial sync: Download zip files if possible.
• Native Cocoa and GTK interfaces. Maestral currently uses PyQt5.
• Packaging: improve packing for macOS (reduce app size) and package for other platforms.

Warning:

• Maestral is still in beta status. Even through highly unlikely, using it may potentially result in loss of data.
• Network drives and some external hard drives are not supported as locations for the Dropbox folder.

Dependencies

System:

• macOS or Linux
• Python 3.6 or higher
• gnome-shell-extension-appindicator on Gnome 3.26 and higher
• PyQt 5.9 or higher (for GUI only).

Python:

• click
• dropbox
• watchdog
• blinker
• requests
• u-msgpack-python
• keyring
• keyring.alt

Acknowledgements

• The config module uses code from the Spyder IDE.
• The MaestralApiClient is based on the work from Orphilia.