NOTE

Unfortunately, I've decided to axe this project. While there were features in a dotfile manager that I would have liked and have listed in this project's spec, there are other completed and wildly used managers that can be made to work the way I would like. Next time, I'll take a better look at what's available before I start a new project. On the positive side, I learned quite a lot about rust while working on this!

dotty

Dotty is an advanced dotfile manager based on GNU stow with a focus on keep configurations seperate on a per-program basis. It supports features such as:

• Dependancies
• Install/remove hooks
• Dotfile generation
• Configuation with YAML or JSON

Future Features

• Automatically updates/syncs, can be configured. (This would require dotty to spawn a daemon)
• GUI and/or ncurses interface.
• Support for multiple repositories / external modules.

Installation

Currently there aren't any built binaries to download (although that might come in the future). Dotty can be built using the nightly rust like so:

cargo build --release

Quick Start

First, make a directory containing the config files you want to version:

- dotfiles
    - zsh
        - .zshenv
        - .zprofile
        - .zshrc

Then, add a module.yml file for dotty to read:

- dotfiles 
    - zsh 
        - module.yml
        - .zshenv 
        - .zprofile 
        - .zshrc

In this example, we will use the following module.yml configuration:

name: zsh 
links: 
    - .zshenv:~/.zshenv 
    - .zprofile:~/.zprofile 
    - .zshrc:~/.zshrc 

Now install your new module as zsh:

dotty install dotfiles/zsh 

To remove it:

dotty remove zsh 

Reference

With dotty, you can:

• Install a module
• Remove a module
• Update an installed module
• Reinstall an install module
• Query dotty for information

Install

Installs a module or modules to the target directory.

dotty install [MODULE_NAME]...

When installing a module, the following will occur in order:

• The module's dependancies will be resolved and installed in reverse order
• Any installation hooks for the module will run
• All files will be symlinked or generated to their respective locaitons
• Any post installation hooks for the module will run

The following flags are supported for dotty install:

(Not implemented yet)
-f      Force install all files, even if they overwrite exiting ones

Remove

Remove files associated with a given module(s) and uninstalls the module(s).

dotty remove [MODULE_NAME]...

When removing an installed module, the following will occur in order:

• Any removal hooks will be run for the module
• All symlinks and generated files created by install will be deleted
• Any post removal hooks will be run for the module

The following flags are supported for dotty remove:

(Not implemented yet)
-r      Recursively remove all dependancies installed by this module if they are not being used
        by another module and were not explicitly installed

Reinstall

(Not implemented yet)

Effectively runs remove on a module, then runs install on it.

dotty reinstall [MODULE_NAME]...

The following flags are support for dotty reinstall:

-r      Recursively reinstall all dependancies as well
-f      Force install any new files that already exist in the filesystem

Update

(Not implemented yet)

Recompiles any generated files and re-symlinks all files. Does not run hooks.

dotty update [MODULE_NAME]...

The following flags are support for dotty update:

-r      Recursively update all dependancies as well
-f      Force install any new files that already exist in the filesystem

If no module is specified, all installed modules will be updated.

List

Lists modules. Will print all installed modules by default.

dotty list installed
dotty list all
dotty list files [MODULE_NAME]

Module Configuration

Modules are configured using YAML (and by extension JSON). Example:

Assume a module filesystem of:

module.yml
config
    .Xresources
    .config
        prog
            stuff.conf

links:
    - config:~/.config

(Not implemented yet)
append:
    .Xresources: config/.Xresources
hooks:
    OnInstall: ["script.sh", "prog"]
    OnRemove: "rScript.sh"
    OnPostInstall: []
    OnPostRemove: 
        - cleanup.sh
        - cleanupother.sh
dependancies:
    - othermodule

Dotty Configuration

Dotty itself can be configured with a config file in ~/.config/dotty/config.yml by default. The following configurations are supported:

default_data_dir: "/path/to/data/dir"