b.stefanuk.ca

Appearance

Syncing a Linux Filesystem with Google Drive ​

A simple and effective method to sync a Linux filesystem with GoogleDrive is the use google-drive-ocamlfuse.

  1. Add the PPA repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa and install the package (Ref: [[Using PPA Repositories]]) .
sh
add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install google-drive-ocamlfuse
add-apt-repository ppa:alessandro-strada/ppa
apt-get update
apt-get install google-drive-ocamlfuse
  1. Authenticate with Google.
sh
google-drive-ocamlfuse
google-drive-ocamlfuse
  1. Choose or create a folder and mount your drive (~/GoogleDrive is a solid choice).
sh
mkdir ~/GoogleDrive
google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/GoogleDrive
mkdir ~/GoogleDrive
google-drive-ocamlfuse ~/GoogleDrive

Since the google-drive-ocamlfuse daemon doesn't start on boot, if your computer shuts down then you'll have two options.

  1. Remount the drive and start the daemon on every boot.
sh
google-drive-ocamlfuse -o nonempty ~/GoogleDrive
google-drive-ocamlfuse -o nonempty ~/GoogleDrive
  1. Use a System service to remount the drive and start the daemon automatically on boot (Ref: [[Using Systemd Service Files]]).
    • Create the file /etc/systemd/system/google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
sh,
touch /etc/systemd/system/google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
touch /etc/systemd/system/google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
  1. Add the following contents to the file with all occurances of your_user replaced with your username.
    ini
    [Unit]  
Description=Google Drive OCamlFuse service file
After=syslog.target network.target
    [Unit]  
Description=Google Drive OCamlFuse service file
After=syslog.target network.target

[Service] User=your_user Group=your_user ExecStart=google-drive-ocamlfuse -o nonempty /home/your_user/GoogleDrive
ExecStop=fusermount -u /home/your_user/GoogleDrive Restart=always
Type=forking

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target


4. Start and enable the service.
	```sh
systemctl start google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
systemctl enable google-drive-ocamlfuse.service

4. Start and enable the service.
	```sh
systemctl start google-drive-ocamlfuse.service
systemctl enable google-drive-ocamlfuse.service

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES