Box.com is a file storage service, currently notable for providing 50 gb of free storage if you sign up with its Android client. (Or a few gb free otherwise.)
With a little setup, git-annex can use Box as a special remote.
davfs2 setup
- First, install
the davfs2 program,
which can mount Box using WebDAV. On Debian, just
sudo apt-get install davfs2
- Allow users to mount davfs filesystems, by ensuring that
/sbin/mount.davfs
is setuid root. On Debian, justsudo dpkg-reconfigure davfs2
Add yourself to the davfs2 group.
sudo adduser $(whoami) davfs2
Edit
/etc/fstab
, and add a line to mount Box using davfs.sudo mkdir -p /media/box.com echo "https://www.box.com/dav/ /media/box.com davfs noauto,user 0 0" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
Create
~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf
with some important settings:mkdir ~/.davfs2/ echo use_locks 0 > ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf echo cache_size 1 >> ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf echo delay_upload 0 >> ~/.davfs2/davfs2.conf
Create
~/.davfs2/secrets
. This file contains your Box.com login and password. Your login is probably the email address you signed up with.echo "/media/box.com joey@kitenet.net mypassword" > ~/.davfs2/secrets chmod 600 ~/.davfs2/secrets
Now you should be able to mount Box, as a non-root user:
mount /media/box.com
git-annex setup
You need git-annex version 3.20120303 or newer, which adds support for chunking files larger than Box's 100 mb limit.
Create the special remote, in your git-annex repository. This example is non-encrypted; fill in your gpg key ID for a securely encrypted special remote!
git annex initremote box.com type=directory directory=/media/box.com chunksize=2mb encryption=none
Now git-annex can copy files to box.com, get files from it, etc, just like with any other special remote.
% git annex copy bigfile --to box.com
bigfile (to box.com...) ok
% git annex drop bigfile
bigfile (checking box.com...) ok
% git annex get bigfile
bigfile (from box.com...) ok