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I want to backup my code regularly to the cloud. What's the cheapest and easiest way to do this for a single developer? I was thinking of running my code completely from a DropBox share (continuous synchronization with their free storage plan), which seem to meet the requirement of cheap and easy -- but, any problems with this idea?

Steve Sprite
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Use Git for source control and get yourself a free (or $7/month if you want private repos) GitHub account (an online repository where you can push your changes).

This way you'll get the benefits of a modern source control system, plus free online backup and online availability of your source code.

Even for a lone developer a source control system is advantageous e.g. history auditing, change annotation, change grouping, rollback, branching, etc. Dropbox is likely to be pretty unsophisticated in these respects.

Tim Lloyd
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    I see a big difference between standard cloud storage and git cloud storage. With standard cloud storage, any security compromise will lead to an assortment of files -- images, code, zips, executables etc. So going through the stuff to find anything of use would be a challenge, and my guess is that a majority of the data would already be public. Whereas a compromise of git cloud storage is ONLY source code. Big difference -- no need to go through a haystack of data looking for interesting stuff. Now you just find interesting company names and publish their source code. So, no concerns? – Steve Sprite Dec 31 '10 at 02:17
  • @Steve GitHub hosts a *lot* of code. Value is subjective. If you had to search through all of a compromised GitHub it would still be difficult to find anything of use. How exactly would you find anything that was valuable in 10 million source files in x different languages? Plus it is a Git repository, so it's not a file system with naked files hanging around. I suspect DropBox to be the same - it feels like a file system, but that's just a view\representation. – Tim Lloyd Dec 31 '10 at 02:24
  • @Steve BTW You can store lots of different content in Git e.g. images, source code, zips, executables, etc. – Tim Lloyd Dec 31 '10 at 02:28
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    +1 But I'd recommend Mercurial / BitBucket as being easier than Git for someone starting out with version control on Windows, and because it allows free, private repos. – Ian Mercer Dec 31 '10 at 02:37
  • @H Interesting comment re. Mercurial. I tried Git (with the wonderful GitExtensions) and Mercurial and found there wasn't really that much in it. I chose Git because it had superior support from 3rd party systems at the time (12 months ago). – Tim Lloyd Dec 31 '10 at 02:41
  • Git or Mercurial doesn't matter - in the meantime, Bitbucket has Git support as well, with an unlimited number of free private repos for up to 5 users. – Christian Specht Sep 25 '13 at 19:54
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I use iGoUSB for my backup needs. It has a very cool versioning system with snapshot history that will allow you to go back at any (backup) date to recompile your code. Now, this with dropbox works PERFECTLY:

  • Dropbox keeps your code safe for as long as their service runs
  • Dropbox 2GB free storage should be plenty for source code needs
  • iGoUSB backup repository will let you go back in time whenever you need (which complements the 30 days back that Dropbox gives you for free) - instant versioning!
  • iGoUSB allows backup from multiple computers/profiles - so you can save your code from any computer you use
  • igousb will save only the changed files (while keeping code structure snapshots intact) and for source code files the whole backup will take only a few seconds!

This combination will allow you to:

  1. backup your sources from multiple computers
  2. keep your code safe
  3. keep a transparent and really easy to use versioning system

Just add your favorite editor and tools (anything like notepadd++ and winmerge) and you have an enviable portable solution ready to use anytime you like :)

Note: igousb is not free, you might get a discount if you're a student, but at least it's only one time pay and you might need a good and portable backup tool anyway.

Notitze
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It seems like a good idea to me. A friend of mine hosts a website through dropbox and he said it's up most of the time, but occasionally it will be a 404 error and you have to refresh. np.

There's github and google code if you don't mind sharing your code.

If this is the route you want to take and you want to keep it to yourself, I'd recommend using git for local and remote version control, and keep a copy on dropbox.

Stephen
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http://www.fogcreek.com/kiln/

Joel better +1 me :)

Andrew T Finnell
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There's not a lot of problems with using dropbox if you're going to continue being the sole developer of the project. For backup purposes, it's just fine. But you may want a source control system for keeping revisions and rolling back if you mess something up. xp-dev have got good private repositories for svn or git hosting depending on which you prefer.

David Hewitt
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I'm not going to tell you which source control system to use, that's up to you, but you really should be using some type of source control. Here are a few that have been known to work well:

If you choose either of the latter options, you can make use of free hosting at GitHub or BitBucket to host your data in the cloud.

If you decide to use BitBucket as a solo developer, you get unlimited public and private repositories for free. In the comments, you mentioned that you were concerned about code compromise, so access to private repositories might be important to you.

The idea of continuous synchronization through Dropbox, while marginally easier, loses the immense benefits of revision control, and is not recommended.

Community
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Steve V.
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