[OS X TeX] Disaster

[Herbert Schulz]

> On Aug 23, 2015, at 3:45 PM, George Gratzer <gratzer at me.com> wrote:
> 
> I think I have come to the conclusion that you are right. My troubles have all been diagnosed
> and have nothing to do with Dropbox.
> 
> I have been using Dropbox to coordinate between my iMac and MacBook Air, and also for instant backup.
> 
> GG
> 
>> On Aug 23, 2015, at 4:17 PM, David Goldenberg <goldenberg at biology.utah.edu> wrote:
>> 
>> I have used Dropbox extensively for the past three years, for LaTeX and other things, and have never had any trouble with it.  Maybe I have just been lucky?
>> 
>> David
>> 
>>> 
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Sun, 23 Aug 2015 11:21:13 -0400
>>> From: George Gratzer <gratzer at me.com>
>>> To: TeX on Mac OS X Mailing List <macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu>
>>> Subject: Re: [OS X TeX] Disaster
>>> Message-ID: <1DBCFE57-74D8-41C4-9494-B187A6CE3EA2 at me.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
>>> 
>>> Interesting.
>>> 
>>> GG
>>> 
>>> 
>>>> On Aug 22, 2015, at 1:45 PM, Markus Klyver <markusklyver at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> I would personally highly recommend Overleaf for (La)TeX thesis/essays. Dropbox is known to not work very well for that purpose.
>>>> 
>>>> Best Regards,
>>>> Markus
>>>> 
>>>>> From: gratzer at me.com
>>>>> Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2015 12:23:02 -0400
>>>>> To: macosx-tex at email.esm.psu.edu
>>>>> Subject: Re: [OS X TeX] Disaster
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dick,
>>>>> 
>>>>> This was traumatic, but problems solved.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On the MacBook Air, somehow it did not read in the definition of \MathOrText,
>>>>> causing hundreds of mistakes. I eliminated all, this problem is fixed.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Independently, the source file was corrupted, a big chunk replicated itself.
>>>>> I have never seen anything like this before.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Coincidence, but who believes in coincidences? Two computers, same time.
>>>>> 
>>>>>> Do you use automatic saving?
>>>>> 
>>>>> I do not know. Is this something I set?
>>>>> 
>>>>> I have used Dropbox for many years, have never had problems before. 
>>>>> It?s great for safety and for synchronizing work on more than one computer.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Dropbox also takes care of my photos, 237 GB-s!
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thanks for all the help offered.
>>>>> 
>>>>> George
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>>> On Aug 22, 2015, at 11:33 AM, Richard Koch <koch at uoregon.edu> wrote:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> George,
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Do you use automatic saving?
>>>>>> Try retreating to a previous version of your source. I?d be tempted to
>>>>>> put that previous version in a blank folder, so aux and other temporary files have
>>>>>> to be recreated.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I don?t have direct knowledge of Dropbox-TeX interaction, but using two pieces
>>>>>> of third party software, each of which can save at any moment behind your back,
>>>>>> feels sort of scary.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Dick Koch
>>>>>> 

Howdy,

I use DropBox all the time. It certainly allows me to keep file up to date on multiple systems at once.

I do worry about compiling in a folder that is being synced by DropBox. That's especially true if you use some automation like the latexmk engines in TeXShop since that can re-create files (e.g., the .aux file) fairly quickly and I worry about DropBox not being able to keep up with the rapid changes. I therefore tend to copy DropBox folders, do my work and then copy the changes back or Pause Syncing until I'm done with my work; that lets DropBox sync only once.

Note: this is NOT a good way to have multiple people editing at once. For that you really do need some sort of versioning system so that interfering changes can be take care of properly.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs at wideopenwest dot com)