Does dbxcli skip transferring files if they are unmodified?

[sabjorn]

Was looking through the Dropbox API and couldn't find if this is the case with the web API. And not sure where to look for dbxcli.

Basically, wondering if this operates similar to optional rsync functionality.

[AndreyVMarkelov]

Good question. The right way to support this is to compare the local file using Dropbox's content_hash algorithm against the remote file metadata content_hash.

Current direction:

1. First add explicit existence policy for uploads:

   dbxcli put --if-exists overwrite|skip|fail ...
   

   That is existence-based only. skip means skip if the destination exists, even if contents differ.

2. Then add content-aware skipping:

   dbxcli put file.txt /file.txt --if-exists skip-same
   dbxcli put -r ./local /remote --if-exists skip-same
   

   Proposed behavior:

   • remote file missing: upload
   • remote file exists and content hash matches local file: skip transfer
   • remote file exists and content hash differs: do not silently skip; follow an explicit policy such as overwrite or fail

This would cover the rsync-like optimization without pretending to be a full Dropbox desktop sync replacement. It also gives us a foundation for a later one-shot sync push command.