dotm - Dotfile Manager

dotm is a dotfile manager. It works by symlinking the dotfiles from multiple profiles to the $HOME directory. It expects the dotfile profile to be under source controll by git. This makes it easy to share dotfiles.

Installation

Using installer

The install.sh script will automatically install the latest binary from the github release artifacts.

$ sh <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/relnod/dotm/master/install.sh)

By adding the --user flag the install directory will be $HOME/.local/bin instead of /usr/local/bin.

Using Go

If you have a working go environment, you can simply install it via go get.

$ go get github.com/relnod/dotm/cmd/dotm

Completion

# Bash completions can be generated with the following command
$ dotm --genCompletions > /etc/bash_completion.d/dotm

# A cd helper can be generated with the following command
$ dotm --genChangeDirectory >> ~/.bashrc

$ dcd myprofile

Usage

dotm works by symlinking the files from a dotfile folder to its corresponding place under the $HOME directory of the user.

$ dotm
Usage:
  dotm [flags]
  dotm [command]

Available Commands:
  add         Add a new/existing file to the profile
  config      Sets/Gets values from the configuration file.
  fix         Tries to fix the configuration file
  help        Help about any command
  init        Initialize a new dotfile profile from the given path.
  install     Install dotfiles from a remote git repository
  list        Lists all profiles
  new         Create a new dotfile profile
  uninstall   Uninstall the profile
  update      Updates the symlinks for a given profile.

Flags:
      --genChangeDirectory   generate bash change directory command
      --genCompletions       generate bash completions
  -h, --help                 help for dotm
      --version              version for dotm

Use "dotm [command] --help" for more information about a command.

Examples:

# New (empty) dotfile profile
$ dotm new myprofile

# New profile from an existing dotfile folder
$ dotm init <path-to-existing-dotfile-folder>
$ dotm init --profile=myprofile <path-to-existing-dotfile-folder>

# New profile from a remote git repository
$ dotm install <url-to-remote-repository>
$ dotm install --profile=myprofile <url-to-remote-repository>

# Updating a profile
$ dotm update myprofile
$ dotm update myprofile --fromRemote
$ dotm update myprofile --no-hooks

# Get/Set a configuration value
$ dotm config ignore_prefix "_"
$ dotm config profile.default.path
$ dotm config profile.default.path "/my/path"

Configuration file

The configuration file is located at $HOME/.config/dotm/config.toml. It can hold multiple profiles. Each profile consists of a path to the local dotfile location and an optional path to a remote git repository. It is also possible to specify top level directories, that get included/excluded or add pre/post update hooks.

Example:

# $HOME/.config/dotm/config.toml

# You can define multiple profiles
[profiles.default]

# Upstream git repository
remote = "github.com/relnod/dotm"

# Path to the local dotfile folder
path = "$HOME/.config/dotm/profiles/default"

# Configs to be included
includes = [
    "bash",
    "nvim",
    "tmux"
]

# Configs to be excluded
excludes = [
    "bash",
    "nvim",
    "tmux"
]

# Pre update hooks
pre_update = [
    "echo 'pre update'"
]

# Post update hooks
post_update = [
    "echo 'post update'"
]

# Map of variables used for template processing
[profiles.default.vars]
foo = "bar"
bar = "foo"

Dotfiles folder

A Dotfile folder consists of multiple top level directories to group similar configuration files (e.g. "vim" or "tmux"). The file structure below those top level directories are directly mapped to the $HOME directory.

Example:

tmux/.tmux.conf             -> $HOME/.tmux.conf
bash/.bashrc                -> $HOME/.bashrc
nvim/.config/nvim/init.vim  -> $HOME/.config/nvim/init.vim

Template files

Template files can be used to dynamically add user identifying information inside configuration files. All files with a .tpl file ending are treated as template files. Templates support the syntax from the go text/template package. Variables can be configured per profile. When a template gets processed, a temporary file with the same name plus a .out ending gets generated. This file will be symlinked to the destination file without the .tpl suffix. Make sure to add *.tpl.out to your .gitignore when using templates to prevent adding those to git.

Example:

# $HOME/.config/dotm/profiles/myprofile/git/.gitconfig.tpl

[user]
    name = {{ .GitUser }}
    email = {{ .GitEmail }}

Hooks

Update hooks can be applied via global config, at profile root or per top level directory. For hooks at profile root and top level directory you can create a hooks.toml. Note: This file won't be symlinked.

Example:

# $HOME/.config/dotm/profiles/myprofile/nvim/hooks.toml
pre_update = [
    "nvim +PlugInstall +qall"
]

Breaking Changes

Although dotm is considered somewhat stable, some breaking changes are expected until a 1.0 release. When a breaking change is introduced try to run the fix command. This tries to restore the original behaviour by modifying the configuration file.

# Restore old behaviour by modifying the configuration file
$ dotm fix

Development

There is a Makefile at the repository root to help with development. Start by running make to execute tests and check for lint failures.

Tests are mostly wrtten using the go internal testscript package. The testscripts are located at cmd/dotm/testdata. For more information on how to use testscript see this README located in the go repository.

License

dotm is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE details.