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If you’re like me, you have multiple desktops, laptops and work stations. And there’s a point where it becomes very difficult to not be constrained to one computer based on the task you want to complete, such as email, or instant messaging. I wanted a way to keep my chat logs synchronized across all of my computers. The solution? DropBox.

But there’s one problem with just installing DropBox, it can only sync what’s in it’s folder. We can’t move the chat logs folder of pidgin, so we need to create symbolic links, and junctions between the folders on each computer. The process of doing this may vary depending on the platform you’re using.
First, we need to locate the DropBox folder, and the logs folder for Pidgin.

Linux: ~/.purple/logs/

Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data
- Vista: C:\Users\myuser\AppData\Roaming\.purple\logs

If you’re on linux, then you can use the ln command to create a symbolic link:

ln -s [TARGET DIRECTORY OR FILE] ./[SHORTCUT]

If you’re in Windows XP, you’ll need to download and use this shell extension.

In Windows Vista/7, you can use the mklink command.

Once I had this setup, and DropBox had synchronized all of my logs, I noticed it re-syncing every-time any of the log files where edited. Every single time I send a text message, it is now relayed across all of my computers. Which means if I sign off on my desktop, and hop on my laptop I can sign on Pidgin again and all my logs will be there.

This same process can be used to synchronize just about anything else.