NOTE
Unfortunately, I've decided to axe this project. While there were features in a dotfile manager that I would have liked and have listed in this project's spec, there are other completed and wildly used managers that can be made to work the way I would like. Next time, I'll take a better look at what's available before I start a new project. On the positive side, I learned quite a lot about rust while working on this!
dotty
Dotty is an advanced dotfile manager based on GNU stow with a focus on keep configurations seperate on a per-program basis. It supports features such as:
- Dependancies
- Install/remove hooks
- Dotfile generation
- Configuation with YAML or JSON
Future Features
- Automatically updates/syncs, can be configured. (This would require dotty to spawn a daemon)
- GUI and/or ncurses interface.
- Support for multiple repositories / external modules.
Installation
Currently there aren't any built binaries to download (although that might come in the future). Dotty can be built using the nightly rust like so:
cargo build --release
Quick Start
First, make a directory containing the config files you want to version:
- dotfiles
- zsh
- .zshenv
- .zprofile
- .zshrc
Then, add a module.yml
file for dotty to read:
- dotfiles
- zsh
- module.yml
- .zshenv
- .zprofile
- .zshrc
In this example, we will use the following module.yml
configuration:
name: zsh
links:
- .zshenv:~/.zshenv
- .zprofile:~/.zprofile
- .zshrc:~/.zshrc
Now install your new module as zsh
:
dotty install dotfiles/zsh
To remove it:
dotty remove zsh
Reference
With dotty, you can:
- Install a module
- Remove a module
- Update an installed module
- Reinstall an install module
- Query dotty for information
Install
Installs a module or modules to the target directory.
dotty install [MODULE_NAME]...
When installing a module, the following will occur in order:
- The module's dependancies will be resolved and installed in reverse order
- Any installation hooks for the module will run
- All files will be symlinked or generated to their respective locaitons
- Any post installation hooks for the module will run
The following flags are supported for dotty install
:
(Not implemented yet)
-f Force install all files, even if they overwrite exiting ones
Remove
Remove files associated with a given module(s) and uninstalls the module(s).
dotty remove [MODULE_NAME]...
When removing an installed module, the following will occur in order:
- Any removal hooks will be run for the module
- All symlinks and generated files created by
install
will be deleted - Any post removal hooks will be run for the module
The following flags are supported for dotty remove
:
(Not implemented yet)
-r Recursively remove all dependancies installed by this module if they are not being used
by another module and were not explicitly installed
Reinstall
(Not implemented yet)
Effectively runs remove
on a module, then runs install
on it.
dotty reinstall [MODULE_NAME]...
The following flags are support for dotty reinstall
:
-r Recursively reinstall all dependancies as well
-f Force install any new files that already exist in the filesystem
Update
(Not implemented yet)
Recompiles any generated files and re-symlinks all files. Does not run hooks.
dotty update [MODULE_NAME]...
The following flags are support for dotty update
:
-r Recursively update all dependancies as well
-f Force install any new files that already exist in the filesystem
If no module is specified, all installed modules will be updated.
List
Lists modules. Will print all installed modules by default.
dotty list installed
dotty list all
dotty list files [MODULE_NAME]
Module Configuration
Modules are configured using YAML (and by extension JSON). Example:
Assume a module filesystem of:
module.yml
config
.Xresources
.config
prog
stuff.conf
links:
- config:~/.config
(Not implemented yet)
append:
.Xresources: config/.Xresources
hooks:
OnInstall: ["script.sh", "prog"]
OnRemove: "rScript.sh"
OnPostInstall: []
OnPostRemove:
- cleanup.sh
- cleanupother.sh
dependancies:
- othermodule
Dotty Configuration
Dotty itself can be configured with a config file in ~/.config/dotty/config.yml
by default. The following configurations are supported:
default_data_dir: "/path/to/data/dir"