Hardlinks in Dropbox not updated

Question

I want to create a backup of a single .tex file. I created the hard link to the file (which is not in Dropbox directory, lets say it is A) inside Dropbox directory. I did this so because I do not want to backup other auxiliary file created (eg. axu, .log, .bbl etc.) when compiling the tex file. I edit and compile the tex file in A. The changes are reflected when I see the file inside Dropbox directory. But its is not synced with the online folder. However, If I change the file (hard link) inside the Dropbox directory, it gets synced.

Please let me know what is the problem here. Please give the solution within what I am using and trying to do rather than proposing alternative solution for same task.

I am using Fedora 13.

Answer 1

Dropbox is probably using inotify or a variant thereof to watch for changes in the Dropbox directory. Because the change happens outside of the Dropbox directory, Dropbox doesn't see it.

To get the desired effect, you might be able to use symlinks instead of hard-links. I'm not sure if there's any special reason it needs to be a hard-link for your use case (edit and compile).