hypnoglow / dotbro

Dotbro - simple yet effective dotfiles manager.

dotbro - simple yet effective dotfiles manager.

Dotbro is a tool which helps you install and keep your dotfiles up to date.

tl;dr

Create simple config. Run dotbro first time:

dotbro --config path/to/your/config.toml

Next time just execute:

dotbro

Dotfiles? What?

Read about dotfiles on GitHub page. I think this article by Lars Kappert will give you enough understanding. So, if you don't have your dotfiles repository yet, it's time to create it. Next, read further to explore an easy way to manage your dotfiles.

Motivation

Dotfiles are generally stored in VCS and symlinked from repo directory to your $HOME - this is one of the best patterns because you can track changes easily and commit them to your dotfiles repo. However, this pattern does not offer you any way to install your dotfiles, so often people end up writing their own script e.g. in bash, which is not good for long-term purposes (I know that because I had one).

This tool was made to deal with dotfiles installation, so you don't waste your time writing your install scripts and focus only on your dotfiles themselves.

Dotbro takes on the routine. The main task - installing your dotfiles in one command on any of your machines.

Features

Simple configuration file

All you need is simple configuration file in JSON or TOML format.

The other benefit is you do not need any special tooling if you use multiple different operation systems, e.g Linux and OS X. You can use one single dotfiles repository with multiple dotbro's configuration files inside - one for each OS. What can be easier?

Clear mapping

You may want to (or you do already) store your dotfiles in a neat way using named directories like bash/bashrc. Obviously, you want to symlink it to proper place $HOME/.bashrc. This is easily done by writing such string in [mapping] section:

"bash/bashrc" = ".bashrc"

Specify the configuration file only once

First time you run dotbro, specify the config file. Dotbro remembers path to this file and use it in further runs.

Cleans dead symlinks

Dotbro cleans broken symlinks in your $HOME (or your another destination path).

Add command

Dotbro can automate routine of adding files to your dotfiles repo with one single command. It does a backup copy, moves the file and creates a symlink to your file. After that you only need to add this file to your dotbro config (I'm working on automation of this) and commit that file to your repo.

Configuration

Configuration can be either TOML or JSON file. TOML is peferred, because it's a bit clearer and allows comments. However, JSON is good option for configs without mapping, it's short and simple.

Example of a simple configuration file in TOML format:

# Dotbro configuration file.
#
# Some points:
# - Almost all options have default value.
# - You can use $ENV_VARIABLE in paths.

[directories]

# Directory of your dotfiles repository.
# Default: directory of this config.
dotfiles = "$HOME/dotfiles"

# Destination directory - your dotfiles will be linked there.
# Default: $HOME
destination = "$HOME"

# Backup directory - your original files will be backuped there.
# Default: $HOME/.dotfiles~
backup = "$HOME/.dotfiles~"

[mapping]

# Binaries
"bin" = "bin"

# ZSH
"zsh/zprofile" = ".zprofile"
"zsh/zshrc" = ".zshrc"
"zsh/zshrc.d" = ".zshrc.d"
"zsh/zlogin" = ".zlogin"

# Vim
"vim/vimrc" = ".vimrc"

"git/commit_template" = ".gitcommit"
"git/config" = ".gitconfig"
"git/excludes" = ".gitexcludes"

"i3" = ".i3"
".keynavrc" = ".keynavrc"
".screenrc" = ".screenrc"

See more examples in config_examples directory of this repo.

Options

Config has 3 sections:

• directories
• mapping
• files

Directories

Option	Description	Example	Default
dotfiles	Directory of your dotfiles repository.	$HOME/dotfiles	Directory of your config file.
sources	Directory relative to dotfiles where dotfiles are stored. You want to set this option if you keep your dotfiles in a subdirectory of your repo. By default this is empty, assuming your dotfiles are on the first level of dotfiles directory.	src	none
destination	Your dotfiles will be linked there.	$HOME	$HOME
backup	Your original files will be backuped there.	$HOME/backups/dotfiles	$HOME/.dotfiles~

Mapping

Each option here represents source file and destination file.
Example: your dotfiles directory is $HOME/dotfiles. In that directory, you have folder vim and file vimrc in that folder, so path is $HOME/dotfiles/vim/vimrc. In directories section you have already specified dotfiles = "$HOME/dotfiles". So to install your vimrc properly you need to specify such line in mapping section:

"vim/vimrc" = ".vimrc"

Also, mapping is optional. If you do not specify any mapping, dotbro will symlink all files from your dotfiles directory to your destination directory respectively. If you do want this approach, but want some files to be excluded, see Files section.

Files

As said above, this section is for symlinking all dotfiles without mapping specification.

Option	Description	Example	Default
excludes	Files to exclude from being installed	excludes = ["README.md", "dotbro.toml"]	none

Summing up, your config without mapping will look like this:

# Dotbro configuration file.

[directories]

dotfiles = "$HOME/dotfiles"

[mapping]

excludes = [
    "README.md",
    "dotbro.toml"
]

Install dotbro

Using Go tools:

go install github.com/hypnoglow/dotbro@latest

This downloads the source code, builds and installs the latest version of dotbro. Then you can use dotbro command right away.

Arch Linux

dotbro package is available in AUR:

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dotbro/

Precompiled binary

Coming soon ...

Usage

Take a look at usage info running:

dotbro --help

If you haven't prepared your config file yet, it's time to do it. When your config is ready, run:

dotbro -c <config-path>

This installs your dotfiles.

Further runs you can omit config path parameter - dotbro have remembered it for you. So just run:

dotbro

To move a file to your dotfiles, perform an add command:

dotbro add ./path-to-file

Issues

If you experience any problems, please submit an issue and attach dotbro log file, which can be found at $HOME/.dotbro/dotbro.log.

License

MIT

dotbro's Issues

Feature: run custom commands

Implement a feature allowing users to define custom commands in the config file, and run them on installing dotfiles.

"dotbro add" command should add an entry to "dotbro.toml"

There are some caveats.

For example, the config file should not be reformatted. The command should only add a single line, but not changing any existing lines. So, simple toml.Decode() will not work here.

Allow for encrypted files/directories

Then unencrypt them when linking, maybe? Need to iterate on the design.

Would be nice to have an extra layer of security for files that might contain sensitive information being stored in version control. No substitute for a private repository, but you never know when there's a weak link in the chain.

Feature: check if local & remote dotfiles are in sync

Implement a simple command to check if local dotfiles repo and remote dotfiles repo are in sync.
The result should be cached for some considerable time.
So it can be used in ~/.zshrc to notify a user if his dotfiles are outdated (e.g. he forgot to fetch changes from remote).

documentation change needed

Hey,

Latest go version changes mean to install need to use go install github.com/hypnoglow/dotbro@latest (I think).

Not really a bug but thought may help others

Comparing to homesick

Hi!

The is quite popular homesick / homeshick projects that help to manage the dot files.

Does this project aim to solve the same problem? Are there any use-cases which those projects don't serve well?

Actualize project source code structure

It's quite old, need to make it clean and shiny :)

Switch to GitHub Actions from Travis CI

GitHub Actions are much better nowadays, especially since this project is hosted on GitHub.

Write tests

This project needs more tests.

Add linter integration (`golangci-lint`)

Linter is a must :)

Break down by OS->Hostname->Distro

It would be nice to have optional mappings/init/etc broken down by OS, then Hostname, then distro/version like the following JSON

{
  "mappings": {
    "one": "two",
    "two": "three"
  },
  "init" : [
    "one",
    "two"
  ],
  "env" : {
    "linux" :{
      "mappings": {
        "three": "four"
      },
      "init" : [
        "three"
      ]
    }
  }
}

But, alas, TOML doesn't support arrays and tables at the same level unless they're written in a particular order.

#totally fine
bar = [
  "one",
  "two"
]

[foo]
one = "two"
three = "four"

#nope
[foo]
one = "two"
three = "four"

bar = [
  "one",
  "two"
]

YAML's cool with it, though:

foo:
  one: two
  three: four
bar:
  - one
  - two

Kind of a big change, but it would dovetail nicely with init command substitutions. Opening issue to track.