Re: st: Re: Stata logfile in Dropbox

[Red Owl <rh.redowl@liu.edu>]

As Michael Stewart reported in a follow-up post in this thread, Box
(from Box.com) works well with Stata log files.  In my own testing, I
have found that several other cloud storage and sync services (e.g.,
SugarSync, Copy, BittorrentSync) also work on my local system (as
described below).

I want to restate for others and for the record, however, that DropBox
also works with Stata log files on my system (Stata/IC 13.1, Windows
8.1, with DropBox located on D: drive and not in the default C: drive
folder).

I ran the following code with a log file in my DropBox\Temp folder to
create a process that runs for almost two minutes, and I intentionally
did not close the log file.

*** BEGIN CODE ***
log using d:\DropBox\Temp\logdropbox, replace
sysuse auto, clear
bootstrap, rep(20000): regress price mpg headroom foreign rep78
** END CODE ***

Soon after the process started, I opened the log file (in .smcl format)
in my DropBox\Temp folder.  At that stage the log file in DropBox showed
that the bootstrapping had reached 650 repetitions.

After a few more seconds I opened the log file again, at which point log
file showed that the bootstrapping had reached 13950 repetitions.  I
then opened the log file after the entire process had completed after
almost two minutes, and the log file showed the full 20000 repetitions
and the completed regression output.  I did not close the log file or
exit Stata during the test.

So, my findings are that DropBox performs on my system in the manner
that I understand Michael Stewart wanted in his original post in this
thread.  The Stata process does not have to be completed, and the log
file does not have to be closed before the log file in DropBox can be
read.  Also, opening the log file during a running Stata process does
not cause the log file to close or stop logging.

Perhaps some local system issue (such as a firewall rule or folder
permission) on Michael Stewart's system prevented the log file from
working with DropBox as he had wanted.

Red Owl
redowl.liu


> Most recently, Michael Stewart <michaelstewartresearch@gmail.com>
wrote on Sun, 29 Dec 2013 04:44:29:
>
> Thank you  very much for the helpful information. I have tried box.com
> and it worked.I am  happy with that.
>
> Honestly, I have no idea why dropbox did not work. But that seems to
> be beyond my technical ability.


[Several interim responses snipped by Red Owl]


>> Originally, Michael Stewart <michaelstewartresearch@gmail.com> wrote
on Thu, 26 Dec 2013 22:13:00:
>>
>> I was wondering if it is possible for Stata to start a log file in
the dropbox.
>> Many time, when I start long jobs(which might take hours), It  might
>> be great if I can check output from my smart phone.With this in mind,
>> I started a log file in my drop box account. My code is as follows
>>
>> I am using Stata 12 .
>> Platform: Windows 7
>>
>> **************************************************
>> capture log close
>> cd "C:/Users/mike/Dropbox/_stata_output"
>> log using stata.log,replace
>> ***************************************************
>>
>> The log file starts after the above set of commands are issued but it
>> doesn't get updated .
>>
>> I always see the following output
>>
>> ***************************************************
>>       name:  <unnamed>
>>        log:  C:\Users\mike\Dropbox\_stata_output\stata.log
>>   log type:  text
>>  opened on:  26 Dec 2013, 20:43:39
>> end of do-file
>> ***************************************************
>>
>> Any ideas thought are welcome.
>>
>> Thank you very much for your time.
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