Run minecraft from dropbox folder.

[Tbone]

Hi.

Anyone know if it is possible to run minecraft from inside a shared dropbox folder?

The reason i would like to do this is to keep me and my friends .minecraft/mods and .minecraft/config folder synchronized.

I know it is illegal to distribute to minecraft.jar file, so maybe this is impossible without doing anything wrong.

[TheGuy]

It's fine if you don't mind...

Anyways, if you want to play it like that, get a portable MC program (mine's here: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31527479/MC.exe )

Make a new folder for it (preferably something like MC, but it's your choice, you just have to make a folder) and place the program there. It'll download the launcher, and you'll have to login once to download files. Then it's just a matter of letting dropbox upload the files and that's it.

Any time you want to play, just run MC.exe and it'll run it from there, not %appdata%/.minecraft.

Also, to check the portable .minecraft, it's in <your folder name here>/mcp_data/.minecraft.

[The Merchant of Menace]

I belive that would count as illegally distributing the .jar, unfortunately.

[TheGuy]

It does.. :|

I guess there is no legal way of doing that..

Except..

Try making a batch file (or I could make it for you) that copies everything in the .minecraft folder except the bin folder! (to dropbox)

[Vovegog]

You could use Dropbox to play on your account on different computers by doing this - while still being able to play on your worlds.

If you don't share the .jar with anyone else it wouldn't be illegal.

[LazDude2012]

If you found a neat shell script, you could copy .minecraft/mods and .minecraft/config to Dropbox and back again with the press of a RETURN key. Then, you could use that same shell script on various computers to sync it up. If you really want, I could probably make this for you. (I have no idea how Dropbox's upload system works, though)

[sct]

How well does dropbox handle the constant rewrites to the world files? Sounds like it could get pretty messy.

[Neowulf]

Set dropbox to sync your worlds folder.

Pause syncing before you start the game.

Unpause when done.

[Vovegog]

If you found a neat shell script, you could copy .minecraft/mods and .minecraft/config to Dropbox and back again with the press of a RETURN key. Then, you could use that same shell script on various computers to sync it up. If you really want, I could probably make this for you. (I have no idea how Dropbox's upload system works, though)

Would Junction work? I am no master at scripting or any of that sorts, but look at http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Tutorials/Minecraft_Help_FAQ]the bottom of this page.

Would this work?

[sabreman]

So I actualy made two bat files to do just that a while ago:

@echo off

SET _source= "%APPDATA%\.techniclauncher"

SET _dest= "%CD%\.techniclauncher"

cls

echo ##################################

echo ## Syncing Minecraft Data ##

echo ##################################

echo ## PC ^=^> DRIVE ##

echo ##################################

PAUSE

ROBOCOPY %_source% %_dest% /S /DCOPY:T /PURGE /XD bin

echo ## Done!

@echo

PAUSE

@echo on

@echo off

SET _source= "%APPDATA%\.techniclauncher"

SET _dest= "%CD%\.techniclauncher"

cls

echo ##################################

echo ## Syncing Minecraft Data ##

echo ##################################

echo ## DRIVE ^=^> PC ##

echo ##################################

PAUSE

ROBOCOPY %_dest% %_source% /S /DCOPY:T /PURGE /XD bin

echo ## Done!

@echo

PAUSE

@echo on

How to use:

1) stick both of them into the destination folder (or elsewhere, just rember to change the _dest variable if you do)

2) click on the one you want and then hit enter

3) It will now copy all of the files over, excluding anything in the bin folder (if you delete the "/XD bin" part, it will also do that) and beep 3 times when it's done.

The cool thing about them is that they only copy the CHANGED files, cutting the amount of time it takes to sync your crap by a ton.

I plan on making an actual small program sometime this week that makes all of this even easier, until then let me know if it has any issues.

Edit: Well, the forms didnt save the proper spacing nor did they save the beep chars at the end, so here's a link to the files from my dropbox:

click meh