Dotbot ====== Dotbot is a tool that bootstraps your dotfiles (it's a [Dot]files [bo]o[t]strapper, get it?). It does *less* than you think, because version control systems do more than you think. Dotbot is designed to be lightweight and self-contained, with no external dependencies and no installation required. Dotbot can also be a drop-in replacement for any other tool you were using to manage your dotfiles, and Dotbot is VCS-agnostic -- it doesn't make any attempt to manage your dotfiles. If you want an in-depth tutorial about organizing your dotfiles, see this [blog post][managing-dotfiles-post]. Get Running in 5 Minutes ------------------------ ### Starting Fresh? Great! Just run the following command and start adding your customizations. If you're looking for [some inpiration][inspiration], we've got you covered. ```bash git clone git@github.com:anishathalye/dotfiles_template dotfiles ``` ### Integrate with Existing Dotfiles The following will help you get set up using Dotbot in just a few steps. If you're using Git, you can add Dotbot as a submodule: ```bash # replace with the path to your dotfiles cd ~/.dotfiles git submodule add https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot cp dotbot/tools/git-submodule/install . touch install.conf.yaml ``` If you're using Mercurial, you can add Dotbot as a subrepo: ```bash # replace with the path to your dotfiles echo "dotbot = [git]https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot" > .hgsub hg add .hgsub git clone https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot cp dotbot/tools/hg-subrepo/install . touch install.conf.yaml ``` To get started, you just need to fill in the `install.conf.yaml` and Dotbot will take care of the rest. To help you get started we have [an example](#full-example) config file as well as [configuration documentation](#configuration) for the accepted parameters. Note: The `install` script is merely a shim that checks out the appropriate version of Dotbot and calls the full Dotbot installer. By default, the script assumes that the configuration is located in `install.conf.yaml` the Dotbot submodule is located in `dotbot`. You can change either of these parameters by editing the variables in the `install` script appropiately. Setting up Dotbot as a submodule or subrepo locks it on the current version. You can upgrade Dotbot at any point. If using a submodule, run `git submodule update --remote dotbot`, substituting `dotbot` with the path to the Dotbot submodule. If using a subrepo, run `git fetch && git checkout origin/master` in the Dotbot directory. ### Full Example Here's an example of a complete configuration. The conventional name for the configuration file is `install.conf.yaml`. ```yaml - clean: ['~'] - link: ~/.dotfiles: '' ~/.tmux.conf: tmux.conf ~/.vim: vim/ ~/.vimrc: vimrc - shell: - [git submodule update --init --recursive, Installing submodules] ``` The configuration file can also be written in JSON. Here is the JSON equivalent of the YAML configuration given above. The conventional name for this file is `install.conf.json`. ```json [ { "clean": ["~"] }, { "link": { "~/.dotfiles": "", "~/.tmux.conf": "tmux.conf", "~/.vim": "vim/", "~/.vimrc": "vimrc" } }, { "shell": [ ["git submodule update --init --recursive", "Installing submodules"] ] } ] ``` ## Configuration Dotbot uses YAML or JSON formatted configuration files to let you specify how to set up your dotfiles. Currently, Dotbot knows how to [link](#link) files and folders, execute [shell](#shell) commands, and [clean](#clean) directories of broken symbolic links. **Ideally, bootstrap configurations should be idempotent. That is, the installer should be able to be run multiple times without causing any problems.** This makes a lot of things easier to do (in particular, syncing updates between machines becomes really easy). Dotbot configuration files are arrays of tasks, where each task is a dictionary that contains a command name mapping to data for that command. Tasks are run in the order in which they are specified. Commands within a task do not have a defined ordering. When writing nested constructs, keep in mind that YAML is whitespace-sensitive. Following the formatting used in the examples is a good idea. ### Link Link commands specify how files and directories should be symbolically linked. If desired, items can be specified to be forcibly linked, overwriting existing files if necessary. Environment variables in paths are automatically expanded. #### Format Link commands are specified as a dictionary mapping targets to source locations. Source locations are specified relative to the base directory (that is specified when running the installer). Source directory names should contain a trailing "/" character. Link commands support an (optional) extended configuration. In this type of configuration, instead of specifying source locations directly, targets are mapped to extended configuration dictionaries. These dictionaries map `path` to the source path, specify `create` as `true` if the parent directory should be created if necessary, specify `relink` as `true` if incorrect symbolic links should be automatically overwritten, and specify `force` as `true` if the file or directory should be forcibly linked. #### Example ```yaml - link: ~/.config/terminator: create: true path: config/terminator/ ~/.vim: vim/ ~/.vimrc: relink: true path: vimrc ~/.zshrc: force: true path: zshrc ``` ### Shell Shell commands specify shell commands to be run. Shell commands are run in the base directory (that is specified when running the installer). #### Format Shell commands can be specified in several different ways. The simplest way is just to specify a command as a string containing the command to be run. Another way is to specify a two element array where the first element is the shell command and the second is an optional human-readable description. Shell commands support an extended syntax as well, which provides more fine-grained control. A command can be specified as a dictionary that contains the command to be run, a description, and whether `stdin`, `stdout`, and `stderr` are enabled. In this syntax, all keys are optional except for the command itself. #### Example ```yaml - shell: - mkdir -p ~/src - [mkdir -p ~/downloads, Creating downloads directory] - command: read var && echo Your variable is $var stdin: true stdout: true - command: read fail stderr: true ``` ### Clean Clean commands specify directories that should be checked for dead symbolic links. These dead links are removed automatically. Only dead links that point to the dotfiles directory are removed. #### Format Clean commands are specified as an array of directories to be cleaned. #### Example ```yaml - clean: ['~'] ``` Contributing ------------ Do you have a feature request, bug report, or patch? Great! See [CONTRIBUTING.md][contributing] for information on what you can do about that. License ------- Copyright (c) 2014-2015 Anish Athalye. Released under the MIT License. See [LICENSE.md][license] for details. [inspiration]: https://github.com/anishathalye/dotfiles_template#inspiration [managing-dotfiles-post]: http://www.anishathalye.com/2014/08/03/managing-your-dotfiles/ [contributing]: CONTRIBUTING.md [license]: LICENSE.md