Why is it so complicated? There are many projects out there that help you manage your dotfiles via an SCM. I've played with a few but not one of them felt right for me. Why is something so simple written in Ruby or Python? Why is something so simply have so many SLOC? A tool managing dotfiles is begging to be written in shell script. If I'm provisioning a new system (and I do this a lot with Solaris and Linux) I don't want to install a bunch of tools needed to pull in my perfect and "nostalgic" home environment. I already have access to bash in a default OS installation and I only want to worry about installing Git.
- files are symlinked directly under $HOME to files under git repos
- directory trees are also recreated under $HOME and files are symlinked
- any number of remote git repos can be cloned and symlinked
- conflicts can be skipped, auto fixed, or interactively fixed
- add new files to a specified git repo
- git pull remote changes for git repos
- Simple!
Every file and directory symlinked from a git repo is prefixed WITH a dot(.)
and each of these files is stored in the git repo WITHOUT a dot(.). If you'd
prefer to store files in the git repo with a dot(.) then use the -p option
which tells nostalgic to not prefix a dot(.) when symlinking. Note that with
-p nostalgic only looks at dot files in the repo and without -p nostalgic
only looks at non-dot files in the repo. Mixing is not supported.
For directory trees in the git repo, nostalgic will re-create the same tree
structure and then create symlinks the files underneath. This allows for
managing files under an existing/shared directory (i.e. ~/.config/...).
This script does not fully manage your git repos for you. It only goes as far to "git clone" new repos, "git add" new files, "git pull" remote updates, and "git status" for repo status. Any other stuff you need to do for managing your repos (i.e. submit!) you'll have to do manually.
It's best to get in the habit of pulling frequently and submitting any changes immediately after they're made. Adhering to this procedure will prevent conflicts.
Usage: nostalgic [options] <cmd> [args]
Options:
-n dry run (no changes are performed)
-s skip conflicts
-f auto fix conflicts (default is interactive)
-p include files already starting with a dot
-r <dir> repo dir (default = $HOME/dots)
-d <dir> symlink destination dir (default = $HOME)
Commands:
clone <uri> clone URI as a repo to be used
list list cloned repos being used
pull <repo> git pull for the repo ('ALL' for all repos)
status <repo> git status for the repo ('ALL' for all repos)
symlink <repo> create symlinks for the repo ('ALL' for all repos)
track <file> <repo> add a file to a repo, git add and symlink the file
Cloned git repos live under $HOME/dots (overridden with -r).
Symlinked files go under $HOME (overridden with -d).
~ % mkdir dots
~ % mkdir test
~ % nostalgic clone https://github.com/insanum/dotfiles.git
--> cloning [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
Cloning into '/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles'...
remote: Counting objects: 3, done.
remote: Total 3 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (3/3), done.
~ % ls dots
dotfiles/
~ % mkdir priv
~ % cd priv
~/priv % git init --bare
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/insanum/priv/
~/priv % cd ..
~ % nostalgic clone $HOME/priv
--> cloning [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
Cloning into '/home/insanum/dots/priv'...
warning: You appear to have cloned an empty repository.
done.
~ % nostalgic list
--> repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv] cloned from [/home/insanum/priv]
--> repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles] cloned from [https://github.com/insanum/dotfiles.git]
~ % nostalgic status ALL
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
nothing to commit (create/copy files and use "git add" to track)
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
# On branch master
nothing to commit (working directory clean)
~ % cd test
~/test % ls -a
./ ../
~/test % touch .vimrc
~/test % touch .bashrc
~/test % touch .passwd
~/test % ls -a
./ ../ .bashrc .passwd .vimrc
~/test % nostalgic track .bashrc dotfiles
--> adding [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/bashrc] to repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
--> symlinked [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/bashrc] to [.bashrc]
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
# new file: bashrc
#
~/test % ls -a
./ ../ .bashrc@ .passwd .vimrc
~/test % nostalgic track .vimrc dotfiles
--> adding [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/vimrc] to repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
--> symlinked [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/vimrc] to [.vimrc]
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
# new file: bashrc
# new file: vimrc
#
~/test % nostalgic track .passwd priv
--> adding [/home/insanum/dots/priv/passwd] to repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
--> symlinked [/home/insanum/dots/priv/passwd] to [.passwd]
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
#
# new file: passwd
#
~/test % nostalgic status ALL
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
# On branch master
#
# Initial commit
#
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
#
# new file: passwd
#
--> git status for repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
# On branch master
# Changes to be committed:
# (use "git reset HEAD <file>..." to unstage)
#
# new file: bashrc
# new file: vimrc
#
~/test % ls -a
./ ../ .bashrc@ .passwd@ .vimrc@
~/test % rm -i .*
rm: cannot remove ‘.’: Is a directory
rm: cannot remove ‘..’: Is a directory
rm: remove symbolic link ‘.bashrc’? y
rm: remove symbolic link ‘.passwd’? y
rm: remove symbolic link ‘.vimrc’? y
~/test % ls -a
./ ../
~/test % nostalgic -d ~/test symlink ALL
--> symlinking repo [/home/insanum/dots/priv]
--> symlinked [passwd]
--> symlinking repo [/home/insanum/dots/dotfiles]
--> symlinked [bashrc]
--> symlinked [vimrc]
~/test % ls -al
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 insanum users 4096 Jun 23 17:32 ./
drwx------ 45 insanum users 4096 Jun 23 17:32 ../
lrwxrwxrwx 1 insanum users 34 Jun 23 17:32 .bashrc -> /home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/bashrc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 insanum users 34 Jun 23 17:32 .passwd -> /home/insanum/dots/priv/passwd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 insanum users 33 Jun 23 17:32 .vimrc -> /home/insanum/dots/dotfiles/vimrc
~/test % cd
~ % ls -a dots/*
dots/priv:
./ ../ .git/ passwd
dots/dotfiles:
./ ../ bashrc .git/ vimrc