DOTDROP

Save your dotfiles once, deploy them everywhere

Dotdrop makes the management of dotfiles between different hosts easy. It allows to store your dotfiles on git and automagically deploy different versions on different setups.

For example you can have a set of dotfiles for your home laptop and a different set for your office desktop. Those sets may overlap and different versions of the same dotfile can be deployed on different predefined profiles. Another use case is when you have a main set of dotfiles for your everyday's host and a sub-set you only need to deploy to temporary hosts (cloud VM, etc) that may be using a slightly different version of some of the dotfiles.

Features:

• Sync once every dotfile on git for different usages
• Allow dotfiles templating by leveraging jinja2
• Comparison between local and stored dotfiles
• Handling multiple profiles with different sets of dotfiles
• Easy import dotfiles
• Handle files and directories
• Associate an action to the deployment of specific dotfiles

Check the blog post and and the example for more.

Quick start:

mkdir dotfiles && cd dotfiles
git init
git submodule add https://github.com/deadc0de6/dotdrop.git
./dotdrop/bootstrap.sh
./dotdrop.sh --help

Why dotdrop ?

There exist many tools to manage dotfiles however not many allow to deploy different versions of the same dotfile on different hosts. Moreover dotdrop allows to specify the set of dotfiles that need to be deployed on a specific profile.

See the example for a concrete example on why dotdrop rocks.

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Table of Contents

• Installation

• Usage

  • Installing dotfiles
  • Diffing your local dotfiles with dotdrop
  • Import new dotfiles
  • List the available profiles
  • List configured dotfiles
  • Execute an action when deploying a dotfile
  • All dotfiles for a profile
  • Include dotfiles from another profile
  • Update dotdrop

• Template

• Example

• People using dotdrop

Installation

There's two ways of installing and using dotdrop, either as a submodule to your dotfiles git tree or system-wide through pypi.

Having dotdrop as a submodule guarantees that anywhere your are cloning your dotfiles git tree from you'll have dotdrop shipped with it. It is the recommended way.

As a submodule

The following will create a repository for your dotfiles and keep dotdrop as a submodules:

$ mkdir dotfiles; cd dotfiles
$ git init
$ git submodule add https://github.com/deadc0de6/dotdrop.git
$ ./dotdrop/bootstrap.sh
$ ./dotdrop.sh --help

Then install the requirements:

$ sudo pip3 install -r dotdrop/requirements.txt

For MacOS users, make sure to install realpath through homebrew (part of coreutils).

Using this solution will need you to work with dotdrop by using the generated script dotdrop.sh at the root of your dotfiles repository.

Finally import your dotfiles as described below.

With pypi

Start by installing dotdrop

$ sudo pip3 install dotdrop

And then create a repository for your dotfiles

$ mkdir dotfiles; cd dotfiles
$ git init

To avoid the need to provide the config file path to dotdrop each time it is called, you can create an alias:

alias dotdrop='dotdrop --cfg=<path-to-your-config.yaml>'

Replace any call to dotdrop.sh in the documentation below by dotdrop if using the pypi solution.

Finally import your dotfiles as described below.

Usage

If starting fresh, the import command of dotdrop allows to easily and quickly get a running setup.

Install dotdrop on one of your host and then import any dotfiles you want dotdrop to manage (be it a file or a directory):

$ dotdrop.sh import ~/.vimrc ~/.xinitrc

Dotdrop does two things:

• Copy the dotfiles in the dotfiles directory
• Create the entries in the config.yaml file

Commit and push your changes.

Then go to another host where your dotfiles need to be managed as well, clone the previously setup git tree and compare local dotfiles with the ones stored by dotdrop:

$ dotdrop.sh list
$ dotdrop.sh compare --profile=<other-host-profile>

Then adapt any dotfile using the template feature and set a new profile for the current host by simply adding lines in the config files, for example:

...
profiles:
  host1:
    dotfiles:
    - f_vimrc
    - f_xinitrc
  host2:
    dotfiles:
    - f_vimrc
...

When done, you can install your dotfiles using

$ dotdrop.sh install

That's it, a single repository with all your dotfiles for your different hosts.

For additional usage see the help:

$ dotdrop.sh --help
     _       _      _
  __| | ___ | |_ __| |_ __ ___  _ __
 / _` |/ _ \| __/ _` | '__/ _ \| '_ |
 \__,_|\___/ \__\__,_|_|  \___/| .__/
                               |_|

Usage:
  dotdrop install   [-fndV] [-c <path>] [-p <profile>]
  dotdrop compare   [-V]    [-c <path>] [-p <profile>] [--files=<files>]
  dotdrop import    [-ldV]  [-c <path>] [-p <profile>] <paths>...
  dotdrop listfiles [-V]    [-c <path>] [-p <profile>]
  dotdrop list      [-V]    [-c <path>]
  dotdrop --help
  dotdrop --version

Options:
  -p --profile=<profile>  Specify the profile to use [default: thor].
  -c --cfg=<path>         Path to the config [default: config.yaml].
  --files=<files>         Comma separated list of files to compare.
  -n --nodiff             Do not diff when installing.
  -l --link               Import and link.
  -f --force              Do not warn if exists.
  -V --verbose            Be verbose.
  -d --dry                Dry run.
  -v --version            Show version.
  -h --help               Show this screen.

For easy deployment the default profile used by dotdrop reflects the hostname of the host on which it runs.

Config file details

The config file (defaults to config.yaml) is a yaml file containing the following entries:

• config entry: contains settings for the deployment

  • backup: create a backup of the dotfile in case it differs from the one that will be installed by dotdrop
  • create: create directory hierarchy when installing dotfiles if it doesn't exist
  • dotpath: path to the directory containing the dotfiles to be managed by dotdrop (absolute path or relative to the config file location)

• dotfiles entry: a list of dotfiles

  • When link is true, dotdrop will create a symlink instead of copying. Template generation (as in template) is not supported when link is true.
  • actions contains a list of action keys that need to be defined in the actions entry below.

  <dotfile-key-name>:
    dst: <where-this-file-is-deployed>
    src: <filename-within-the-dotpath>
    # Optional
    link: <true|false>
    actions:
      - <action-key>

• profiles entry: a list of profiles with the different dotfiles that need to be managed
  • dotfiles: the dotfiles associated to this profile
  • include: include all dotfiles from another profile (optional)

  <some-name-usually-the-hostname>:
    dotfiles:
    - <some-dotfile-key-name-defined-above>
    - <some-other-dotfile-key-name>
    - ...
    # Optional
    include:
    - <some-other-profile>
    - ...

• actions entry: a list of action

  <action-key>: <command-to-execute>

Installing dotfiles

Simply run

$ dotdrop.sh install

Use the --profile switch to specify a profile if not using the host's hostname.

Diffing your local dotfiles with dotdrop

Compare local dotfiles with dotdrop's defined ones:

$ dotdrop.sh compare

Import new dotfiles

Dotdrop allows to import dotfiles directly from the filesystem. It will copy the dotfile and update the config file automatically.

For example to import ~/.xinitrc

$ dotdrop.sh import ~/.xinitrc

List the available profiles

$ dotdrop.sh list

Dotdrop allows to choose which profile to use with the --profile switch if you use something else than the default (the hostname).

List configured dotfiles

The following command lists the different dotfiles configured for a specific profile:

$ dotdrop.sh listfiles --profile=<some-profile>

For example:

Dotfile(s) for profile "some-profile":

f_vimrc (file: "vimrc", link: False)
	-> ~/.vimrc
f_dunstrc (file: "config/dunst/dunstrc", link: False)
	-> ~/.config/dunst/dunstrc

Execute an action when deploying a dotfile

It is sometimes useful to execute some kind of action when deploying a dotfile. For example let's consider Vundle is used to manage vim's plugins, the following action could be set to update and install the plugins when vimrc is deployed:

actions:
  vundle: vim +VundleClean! +VundleInstall +VundleInstall! +qall
config:
  backup: true
  create: true
  dotpath: dotfiles
dotfiles:
  f_vimrc:
    dst: ~/.vimrc
    src: vimrc
    actions:
      - vundle
profiles:
  home:
    dotfiles:
    - f_vimrc

Thus when f_vimrc is installed, the command vim +VundleClean! +VundleInstall +VundleInstall! +qall will be executed.

Update dotdrop

If used as a submodule, update it with

$ git submodule foreach git pull origin master
$ git add dotdrop
$ git commit -m 'update dotdrop'
$ git push

Through pypi:

$ sudo pip3 install dotdrop --upgrade

All dotfiles for a profile

To use all defined dotfiles for a profile, simply use the keyword ALL.

For example:

dotfiles:
  f_xinitrc:
    dst: ~/.xinitrc
    src: xinitrc
  f_vimrc:
    dst: ~/.vimrc
    src: vimrc
profiles:
  host1:
    dotfiles:
    - ALL
  host2:
    dotfiles:
    - f_vimrc

Include dotfiles from another profile

If one profile is using the entire set of another profile, one can use the include entry to avoid redundancy.

For example:

profiles:
  host1:
      dotfiles:
        - f_xinitrc
      include:
        - host2
  host2:
      dotfiles:
        - f_vimrc

Here profile host1 contains all the dotfiles defined for host2 plus f_xinitrc.

Template

Dotdrop leverage the power of jinja2 to handle the templating of dotfiles. See jinja2 template doc or the example section for more information on how to template your dotfiles.

Note that dotdrop uses different delimiters than jinja2's defaults:

• block start = {%@@
• block end = @@%}
• variable start = {{@@
• variable end = @@}}
• comment start = {#@@
• comment end = @@#}

Available variables

Profile

{{@@ profile @@}} contains the profile provided to dotdrop. Below example shows how it is used.

Environment variables

It's possible to access environment variables inside the templates. This feature can be used like this:

{{@@ env['MY_VAR'] @@}}

This allows for storing host-specific properties and/or secrets in environment variables.

You can have an .env file in the directory where your config.yaml lies:

## My variables for this host
var1="some value"
var2="some other value"

## Some secrets
pass="verysecurepassword"

Of course, this file should not be tracked by git (put it in your .gitignore).

Then you can invoke dotdrop with the help of an alias like that:

## when using dotdrop as a submodule
alias dotdrop='eval $(grep -v "^#" ~/dotfiles/.env) ~/dotfiles/dotdrop.sh'

## when using dotdrop from pypi
alias dotdrop='eval $(grep -v "^#" ~/dotfiles/.env) dotdrop --cfg=~/dotfiles/config.yaml'

This loads all the variables from .env (while omitting lines starting with #) before calling dotdrop.

Example

Let's consider two hosts:

• home: home computer with hostname home
• office: office computer with hostname office

The home computer is running awesomeWM and the office computer bspwm. The .xinitrc file will therefore be different while still sharing some lines. Dotdrop allows to store only one single .xinitrc but to deploy different versions depending on where it is run from.

The following file is the dotfile stored in dotdrop containing jinja2 directives for the deployment based on the profile used.

Dotfile <dotpath>/xinitrc:

#!/bin/bash

# load Xresources
userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
      xrdb -merge "$userresources" &
fi

# launch the wm
{%@@ if profile == "home" @@%}
exec awesome
{%@@ elif profile == "office" @@%}
exec bspwm
{%@@ endif @@%}

The if branch will define which part is deployed based on the hostname of the host on which dotdrop is run from.

And here's how the config file looks like with this setup. Of course any combination of the dotfiles (different sets) can be done if more dotfiles have to be deployed.

config.yaml file:

config:
  backup: true
  create: true
  dotpath: dotfiles
dotfiles:
  f_xinitrc:
    dst: ~/.xinitrc
    src: xinitrc
profiles:
  home:
    dotfiles:
    - f_xinitrc
  office:
    dotfiles:
    - f_xinitrc

Installing the dotfiles (the --profile switch is not needed if the hostname matches the entry in the config file):

# on home computer
$ dotdrop.sh install --profile=home

# on office computer
$ dotdrop.sh install --profile=office

Comparing the dotfiles:

# on home computer
$ dotdrop.sh compare

# on office computer
$ dotdrop.sh compare

People using dotdrop

For more examples, see how people are using dotdrop:

• https://github.com/open-dynaMIX/dotfiles
• https://github.com/moyiz/dotfiles
• https://github.com/japorized/dotfiles

Related projects

These are some dotfiles related projects that have inspired me for dotdrop:

• https://github.com/EvanPurkhiser/dots
• https://github.com/jaagr/dots
• https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot
• https://github.com/tomjnixon/Dotfiles

See also github does dotfiles

Migrate from submodule

Initially dotdrop was used as a submodule directly in the dotfiles git tree. That solution allows your dotfiles to be shipped along with the tool able to handle them. Dotdrop is however also directly available on pypi.

If you want to keep it as a submodule (recommended), simply do the following

$ cd <dotfiles-directory>

## get latest version of the submodule
$ git submodule foreach git pull origin master

## and stage the changes
$ git add dotdrop
$ git commit -m 'update dotdrop'

## update the bash script wrapper
$ ./dotdrop/bootstrap.sh

## and stage the change to the dotdrop.sh script
$ git add dotdrop.sh
$ git commit -m 'update dotdrop.sh'

## and finally push the changes upstream
$ git push

Otherwise, simply install it from pypi as explained above and get rid of the submodule:

• move to the dotfiles directory where dotdrop is used as a submodule

$ cd <dotfiles-repository>

• remove the entire submodule "dotdrop" section in .gitmodules
• stage the changes

$ git add .gitmodules

• remove the entire submodule "dotdrop" section in .git/config
• remove the submodule

$ git rm --cached dotdrop

• remove the submodule from .git

$ rm -rf .git/modules/dotdrop

• commit the changes

$ git commit -m 'removing dotdrop submodule'

• remove any remaining files from the dotdrop submodule

$ rm -rf dotdrop

• remove dotdrop.sh

$ git rm dotdrop.sh
$ git commit -m 'remove dotdrop.sh script'

• push upstream

$ git push

Contribution

If you are having trouble installing or using dotdrop, open an issue.

If you want to contribute, feel free to do a PR (please follow PEP8).

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GPLv3 license.