Synchronize Pidgin Logs with Dropbox

I use two different computers, my desktop and my EeePC (Murray), and depending on what I'm doing, I use Pidgin for IRC on both of them. My favorite feature about Pidgin is the ability to log everything and quickly search all of the logs, but that's tricky when the logs are split between two computers. You can browse to the %APPDATA%\.purple folder and copy logs between them, but that's clumsy and slow. So, we need a way to make folders on two computers maintain the same contents. Hey! That's what Dropbox does!

I'm using the method outlined on this website. There's also a method in which you create a symbolic link, but that seems inefficient to me. This way Pidgin just stores the logs directly in the Dropbox folder, and you don't have to do all of that command line finagling.

This guide assumes that you already have Pidgin installed and logging enabled.

This works on WinXP and Win7, I assume it's the same on Vista. I don't know about Linux or MacOSX. If you're on Linux you're probably smart enough to figure it out, if you're on a Mac you probably can't afford a second computer anyway. :P

Step 1 Install Dropbox

http://www.dropbox.com

You should have Dropbox installed already if you use multiple computers, because it's so very handy. 2GB completely free, and you can get more through things like Dropquest, or through referring others who sign up. I currently have 3.5GB of storage space from those. If you use this referral link to sign up it gives me 250MB free. If you don't like referral links just go here.

Install Dropbox on each computer you're using, and note the location of the My Dropbox folder. The default is under My Documents, though you can customize the location. Now any files you put into the Dropbox folder will automatically synchronize through the Internet and appear on all the computers that you have set to synchronize, and you can access the files online. Magic!

Comments

[Jayefuu]

Nice Cam! :)

[Jayefuu]

P.S. it's simple, but you should submit it to Lifehacker.

[CameronSS]

Thanks! We'll see what they say. :)