• Dotfiler

Dotfiler is a script that helps you maintain (chosen) dot-files as symlinks to another directory. This can make backup and version control of the dot-files you consider important easier.

** Understanding Dotfiler

Dotfiler helps you manage dot-files according to the following convention:

• Managed dot-files (normal files or directories) are symlinks to target files in a designated dot-files directory.
• The target files lack the leading dot of the dot-file they represent, but otherwise have the same name.

For example, if your dot-files directory is =~/dotdir= and we want to manage =.emacs.d=, and =~/.profile=, we would have the following files (-> indicates symlink):

+BEGIN_EXAMPLE

Normal files

~/dotdir/emacs.d ~/dotdir/profile

Symlinked dot-files

~/.emacs.d -> ~/dotdir/emacs.d ~/.profile -> ~/dotdir/profile

Unmanaged files remain untouched in ~, for example:

~/.vimrc ~/.ssh

+END_EXAMPLE

** Installation

Recommended way assumes Git versioning of the dot-files directory:

: # Replace '~/dotfiles' with the your preferred dot-files directory : mkdir ~/dotfiles : cd ~/dotfiles : git init : git submodule add git://github.com/cbaatz/dotfiler.git : ln -s dotfiler/dotfiler . # Optional but recommended

By default, Dotfiler uses the parent directory of its install directory as the dot-files directory. For example, if you installed Dotfiler in =~/mydotfiles/dotfiler=, the dot-files directory would be =~/mydotfiles=. You can set the dot-files directory explicitly with the =DOTFILES_DIR= environment variable.

Alternatively, if you're not using Git for your dot-files directory, or you prefer to install Dotfiler somewhere else, you can clone the repo and set the =DOTFILES_DIR= environment variable:

: # Replace '/opt/local/manual' with your preferred path : cd /opt/local/manual : git clone git://github.com/cbaatz/dotfiler.git : # Add the dotfiler script to your PATH and set the DOTFILES_DIR to : # your preferred dot-files directory: : echo "PATH=$PATH:/opt/local/manual/dotfiler" >> ~/.profile : echo "DOTFILES_DIR=~/mydotfiles"

** Usage

: dotfiler status

Show dot-files management status (dot-files directory and status for each file).

: dotfiler add DOT_FILES : # Example: dotfiler add ~/.emacs ~/.vimrc

Manages dot-files by moving each file to your dot-files directory (removing the leading dot) and creating a symlink from your home-dir.

: dotfiler restore DOT_FILES : # Example: dotfiler restore ~/.emacs ~/.vimrc : # dotfiler restore ~/* # Unmanage all

Unmanages dot-files by moving each file back to your home-dir (removing the symlink). Ignores files that are not managed.

: dotfiler update [] : # Example: git checkout HEAD^ : # dotfiler update

Updates symlinks in home-dir to point to the files in the dot-files directory.

Options:

=--overwrite= Overwrite normal files in home-dir with symlinks to files in dot-files directory. DANGEROUS.

* Alternative management approach If you'd like to avoid symlinks, you can make your home directory a git repo, exclude all files by default (=echo '' > ~/.git/info/exclude=) and add exceptions for each file you want to manage (=echo '!.emacs.d/' >> ~/.git/info/exclude=). See [[http://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/gitignore.html]] for details.

I find managing dot-files in a separate directory neater and it fits my back-up scheme better. ** Abandoned ideas *** Files inside dot-directories Dotfiler was meant to support symlinking individual files in dot-directories. However, this was dropped since it complicates things more than the value justifies; it should be straightforward (if tedious) to manually replicate Dotfiler's functionality.

Managing specific files/directories inside a dot-directory requires a list of managed files to recover to a clean home-dir -- which dir in a path is actually managed?

Use =.gitignore= or similar in your dot-files directory to exclude specific files/directories inside dot-directories from version control. (Remember you can use negated patterns.)