Grive: What Is It?

by | Nov 4, 2019 | How-To/Tips, Web

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Google Drive is a convenient place to store all your files, especially if you want to collaborate on them and share them with others. Although Drive is a handy way to store documents and other data, it has closed source code. Thankfully, there is now an open-source solution to this called Grive.

Quick Navigation
All About Grive
How to Use Grive
Wrapping Up

All About Grive

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Grive is an open-source Linux client which you can use for Google Drive. If you have been looking for a Google Drive client to use on a GNU or Linux system, then Grive is what you can use. When you use this client, you will be able to synchronize all the files you currently have up on the “cloud” with your preferred directory and then upload files onto Google Drive. 

Since Google has never come out with a working Linux client to access Google Drive, some coders have taken it upon themselves to create an open-source command-line client to use on Linux systems. You will be able to upload and download files. 

To get started with Grive, you will have to download and then install it. Once you have done that, you are ready to start feeding it commands.

How to Use Grive

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There are several different options you can use in Grive to perform many tasks you may want to execute. The following is a list of commands you can use within this client.

  • -a, --auth – Requests an authorization token from Google.
  • -d, --debug – Enables debugging messages.
  • --dry-run – Ensures that Grive only detects files which need to be uploaded or downloaded. You will not see any other changes.
  • -f, --force – Makes Grive download a file from Google Drive instead uploading it.
  • -h, --help – Generates a help message.
  • --ignore <perl_regexp> - Ignores files with paths that match the Perl Regular Expression.
  • -l <filename>, --log <filename> - Writes the log output to <filename>
  • --log-http <filename_prefix> - Logs every HTTP response within files using the format <filename_prefix>YYYY-MM-DD.HHMMSS.txt for debugging.
  • --new-rev – Creates updated revisions within the server for any updated files.
  • -p <root_path>, --path <root_path> - Sets the root sync directory to <root_path>
  • -s <subdir>, --dir <subdir> - Syncs one <subdir> subdirectory.
  • -v, --version – Displays the version of Grive you are using.
  • -V, --verbose – Runs Grive in verbose mode and generates more messages than you would usually receive.

Wrapping Up

You now know what the Grive client is and how to use it with Google Drive. There was a long time before Grive came along where you were unable to access Google Drive to upload and download files if you were on a Linux system. Thanks for some good-natured coders, we now have Grive. This command-line Linux client will always be free and open-source, following the GNU/Linux philosophy.

Do you have a Linux system and want to easily upload and download files using Google Drive? Head over to the Grive GitHub and download it today!

Featured Image via Pixabay