## NAME yadm - Yet Another Dotfiles Manager ## SYNOPSIS yadm command [options] yadm git-command-or-alias [options] yadm init [-f] [-w directory] yadm clone url [-f] [-w directory] [--bootstrap] [--no-bootstrap] yadm config name [value] yadm config [-e] yadm list [-a] yadm bootstrap yadm encrypt yadm enter yadm decrypt [-l] yadm alt yadm perms yadm introspect category ## DESCRIPTION yadm is a tool for managing a collection of files across multiple com- puters, using a shared Git repository. In addition, yadm provides a feature to select alternate versions of files based on the operating system or host name. Lastly, yadm supplies the ability to manage a subset of secure files, which are encrypted before they are included in the repository. ## COMMANDS git-command or git-alias Any command not internally handled by yadm is passed through to git(1). Git commands or aliases are invoked with the yadm man- aged repository. The working directory for Git commands will be the configured work-tree (usually $HOME). Dotfiles are managed by using standard git commands; add, com- mit, push, pull, etc. The config command is not passed directly through. Instead use the gitconfig command (see below). alt Create symbolic links and process Jinja templates for any man- aged files matching the naming rules described in the ALTERNATES and JINJA sections. It is usually unnecessary to run this com- mand, as yadm automatically processes alternates by default. This automatic behavior can be disabled by setting the configu- ration yadm.auto-alt to "false". bootstrap Execute $HOME/.yadm/bootstrap if it exists. clone url Clone a remote repository for tracking dotfiles. After the con- tents of the remote repository have been fetched, a "merge" of origin/master is attempted. If there are conflicting files already present in the work-tree, this merge will fail and instead a "reset" of origin/master will be done, followed by a "stash". This "stash" operation will preserve the original data. You can review the stashed conflicts by running the command yadm stash show -p from within your $HOME directory. If you want to restore the stashed data, you can run yadm stash apply or yadm stash pop The repository is stored in $HOME/.yadm/repo.git. By default, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be overridden with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite an existing repository by providing the -f option. By default yadm will ask the user if the bootstrap program should be run (if it exists). The options --bootstrap or --no-bootstrap will either force the bootstrap to be run, or prevent it from being run, without prompting the user. config This command manages configurations for yadm. This command works exactly they way git-config(1) does. See the CONFIGURA- TION section for more details. decrypt Decrypt all files stored in $HOME/.yadm/files.gpg. Files decrypted will be relative to the configured work-tree (usually $HOME). Using the -l option will list the files stored without extracting them. encrypt Encrypt all files matching the patterns found in $HOME/.yadm/encrypt. See the ENCRYPTION section for more details. enter Run a sub-shell with all Git variables set. Exit the sub-shell the same way you leave your normal shell (usually with the "exit" command). This sub-shell can be used to easily interact with your yadm repository using "git" commands. This could be useful if you are using a tool which uses Git directly. For example, Emacs Tramp and Magit can manage files by using this configuration: (add-to-list 'tramp-methods '("yadm" (tramp-login-program "yadm") (tramp-login-args (("enter"))) (tramp-remote-shell "/bin/sh") (tramp-remote-shell-args ("-c")))) gitconfig Pass options to the git config command. Since yadm already uses the config command to manage its own configurations, this com- mand is provided as a way to change configurations of the repos- itory managed by yadm. One useful case might be to configure the repository so untracked files are shown in status commands. yadm initially configures its repository so that untracked files are not shown. If you wish use the default Git behavior (to show untracked files and directories), you can remove this con- figuration. yadm gitconfig --unset status.showUntrackedFiles help Print a summary of yadm commands. init Initialize a new, empty repository for tracking dotfiles. The repository is stored in $HOME/.yadm/repo.git. By default, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be overridden with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite an existing repository by providing the -f option. list Print a list of files managed by yadm. The -a option will cause all managed files to be listed. Otherwise, the list will only include files from the current directory or below. introspect category Report internal yadm data. Supported categories are commands, configs, repo, and switches. The purpose of introspection is to support command line completion. perms Update permissions as described in the PERMISSIONS section. It is usually unnecessary to run this command, as yadm automati- cally processes permissions by default. This automatic behavior can be disabled by setting the configuration yadm.auto-perms to "false". version Print the version of yadm. ## OPTIONS yadm supports a set of universal options that alter the paths it uses. The default paths are documented in the FILES section. Any path speci- fied by these options must be fully qualified. If you always want to override one or more of these paths, it may be useful to create an alias for the yadm command. For example, the following alias could be used to override the repository directory. alias yadm='yadm --yadm-repo /alternate/path/to/repo' The following is the full list of universal options. Each option should be followed by a fully qualified path. -Y,--yadm-dir Override the yadm directory. yadm stores its data relative to this directory. --yadm-repo Override the location of the yadm repository. --yadm-config Override the location of the yadm configuration file. --yadm-encrypt Override the location of the yadm encryption configuration. --yadm-archive Override the location of the yadm encrypted files archive. --yadm-bootstrap Override the location of the yadm bootstrap program. ## CONFIGURATION yadm uses a configuration file named $HOME/.yadm/config. This file uses the same format as git-config(1). Also, you can control the con- tents of the configuration file via the yadm config command (which works exactly like git-config). For example, to disable alternates you can run the command: yadm config yadm.auto-alt false The following is the full list of supported configurations: yadm.auto-alt Disable the automatic linking described in the section ALTER- NATES. If disabled, you may still run yadm alt manually to cre- ate the alternate links. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.auto-perms Disable the automatic permission changes described in the sec- tion PERMISSIONS. If disabled, you may still run yadm perms manually to update permissions. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.auto-private-dirs Disable the automatic creating of private directories described in the section PERMISSIONS. yadm.ssh-perms Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.ssh/*. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.gpg-perms Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.gnupg/*. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.gpg-recipient Asymmetrically encrypt files with a gpg public/private key pair. Provide a "key ID" to specify which public key to encrypt with. The key must exist in your public keyrings. If left blank or not provided, symmetric encryption is used instead. If set to "ASK", gpg will interactively ask for recipients. See the ENCRYPTION section for more details. This feature is disabled by default. yadm.gpg-program Specify an alternate program to use instead of "gpg". By default, the first "gpg" found in $PATH is used. yadm.git-program Specify an alternate program to use instead of "git". By default, the first "git" found in $PATH is used. yadm.cygwin-copy If set to "true", for Cygwin hosts, alternate files will be copies instead of symbolic links. This might be desirable, because non-Cygwin software may not properly interpret Cygwin symlinks. These last four "local" configurations are not stored in the $HOME/.yadm/config, they are stored in the local repository. local.class Specify a CLASS for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. By default, no CLASS will be matched. local.os Override the OS for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.hostname Override the HOSTNAME for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.user Override the USER for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. ## ALTERNATES When managing a set of files across different systems, it can be useful to have an automated way of choosing an alternate version of a file for a different operating system, host, or user. yadm implements a feature which will automatically create a symbolic link to the appropriate ver- sion of a file, as long as you follow a specific naming convention. yadm can detect files with names ending in any of the following: ## ##CLASS ##CLASS.OS ##CLASS.OS.HOSTNAME ##CLASS.OS.HOSTNAME.USER ##OS ##OS.HOSTNAME ##OS.HOSTNAME.USER If there are any files managed by yadm's repository, or listed in $HOME/.yadm/encrypt, which match this naming convention, symbolic links will be created for the most appropriate version. This may best be demonstrated by example. Assume the following files are managed by yadm's repository: - $HOME/path/example.txt## - $HOME/path/example.txt##Work - $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin - $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin.host1 - $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin.host2 - $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux - $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux.host1 - $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux.host2 If running on a Macbook named "host2", yadm will create a symbolic link which looks like this: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin.host2 However, on another Mackbook named "host3", yadm will create a symbolic link which looks like this: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin Since the hostname doesn't match any of the managed files, the more generic version is chosen. If running on a Linux server named "host4", the link will be: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux If running on a Solaris server, the link use the default "##" version: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt## If running on a system, with CLASS set to "Work", the link will be: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##WORK If no "##" version exists and no files match the current CLASS/OS/HOST- NAME/USER, then no link will be created. Links are also created for directories named this way, as long as they have at least one yadm managed file within them. CLASS must be manually set using yadm config local.class . OS is determined by running uname -s, HOSTNAME by running hostname, and USER by running id -u -n. yadm will automatically create these links by default. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-alt configuration. Even if disabled, links can be manually created by running yadm alt. It is possible to use "%" as a "wildcard" in place of CLASS, OS, HOST- NAME, or USER. For example, The following file could be linked for any host when the user is "harvey". $HOME/path/example.txt##%.%.harvey CLASS is a special value which is stored locally on each host (inside the local repository). To use alternate symlinks using CLASS, you must set the value of class using the configuration local.class. This is set like any other yadm configuration with the yadm config command. The following sets the CLASS to be "Work". yadm config local.class Work Similarly, the values of OS, HOSTNAME, and USER can be manually over- ridden using the configuration options local.os, local.hostname, and local.user. ## JINJA If the envtpl command is available, Jinja templates will also be pro- cessed to create or overwrite real files. yadm will treat files ending in ##yadm.j2 as Jinja templates. During processing, the following variables are set according to the rules explained in the ALTERNATES section: YADM_CLASS YADM_OS YADM_HOSTNAME YADM_USER In addition YADM_DISTRO is exposed as the value of lsb_release -si if lsb_release is locally available. For example, a file named whatever##yadm.j2 with the following content {% if YADM_USER == 'harvey' -%} config={{YADM_CLASS}}-{{ YADM_OS }} {% else -%} config=dev-whatever {% endif -%} would output a file named whatever with the following content if the user is "harvey": config=work-Linux and the following otherwise: config=dev-whatever See http://jinja.pocoo.org/ for an overview of Jinja. ## ENCRYPTION It can be useful to manage confidential files, like SSH or GPG keys, across multiple systems. However, doing so would put plain text data into a Git repository, which often resides on a public system. yadm implements a feature which can make it easy to encrypt and decrypt a set of files so the encrypted version can be maintained in the Git repository. This feature will only work if the gpg(1) command is available. To use this feature, a list of patterns must be created and saved as $HOME/.yadm/encrypt. This list of patterns should be relative to the configured work-tree (usually $HOME). For example: .ssh/*.key .gnupg/*.gpg The yadm encrypt command will find all files matching the patterns, and prompt for a password. Once a password has confirmed, the matching files will be encrypted and saved as $HOME/.yadm/files.gpg. The pat- terns and files.gpg should be added to the yadm repository so they are available across multiple systems. To decrypt these files later, or on another system run yadm decrypt and provide the correct password. After files are decrypted, permissions are automatically updated as described in the PERMISSIONS section. Symmetric encryption is used by default, but asymmetric encryption may be enabled using the yadm.gpg-recipient configuration. NOTE: It is recommended that you use a private repository when keeping confidential files, even though they are encrypted. ## PERMISSIONS When files are checked out of a Git repository, their initial permis- sions are dependent upon the user's umask. Because of this, yadm will automatically update the permissions of some file paths. The "group" and "others" permissions will be removed from the following files: - $HOME/.yadm/files.gpg - All files matching patterns in $HOME/.yadm/encrypt - The SSH directory and files, .ssh/* - The GPG directory and files, .gnupg/* yadm will automatically update permissions by default. This can be dis- abled using the yadm.auto-perms configuration. Even if disabled, per- missions can be manually updated by running yadm perms. The .ssh directory processing can be disabled using the yadm.ssh-perms configu- ration. The .gnupg directory processing can be disabled using the yadm.gpg-perms configuration. When cloning a repo which includes data in a .ssh or .gnupg directory, if those directories do not exist at the time of cloning, yadm will create the directories with mask 0700 prior to merging the fetched data into the work-tree. When running a Git command and .ssh or .gnupg directories do not exist, yadm will create those directories with mask 0700 prior to running the Git command. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-private-dirs configuration. ## HOOKS For every command yadm supports, a program can be provided to run before or after that command. These are referred to as "hooks". yadm looks for hooks in the directory $HOME/.yadm/hooks. Each hook is named using a prefix of pre_ or post_, followed by the command which should trigger the hook. For example, to create a hook which is run after every yadm pull command, create a hook named post_pull. Hooks must have the executable file permission set. If a pre_ hook is defined, and the hook terminates with a non-zero exit status, yadm will refuse to run the yadm command. For example, if a pre_commit hook is defined, but that command ends with a non-zero exit status, the yadm commit will never be run. This allows one to "short- circuit" any operation using a pre_ hook. Hooks have the following environment variables available to them at runtime: YADM_HOOK_COMMAND The command which triggered the hook YADM_HOOK_EXIT The exit status of the yadm command YADM_HOOK_FULL_COMMAND The yadm command with all command line arguments YADM_HOOK_REPO The path to the yadm repository YADM_HOOK_WORK The path to the work-tree ## FILES The following are the default paths yadm uses for its own data. These paths can be altered using universal options. See the OPTIONS section for details. $HOME/.yadm The yadm directory. By default, all data yadm stores is relative to this directory. $YADM_DIR/config Configuration file for yadm. $YADM_DIR/repo.git Git repository used by yadm. $YADM_DIR/encrypt List of globs used for encrypt/decrypt $YADM_DIR/files.gpg All files encrypted with yadm encrypt are stored in this file. ## EXAMPLES yadm init Create an empty repo for managing files yadm add .bash_profile ; yadm commit Add .bash_profile to the Git index and create a new commit yadm remote add origin Add a remote origin to an existing repository yadm push -u origin master Initial push of master to origin echo .ssh/*.key >> $HOME/.yadm/encrypt Add a new pattern to the list of encrypted files yadm encrypt ; yadm add ~/.yadm/files.gpg ; yadm commit Commit a new set of encrypted files ## REPORTING BUGS Report issues or create pull requests at GitHub: https://github.com/TheLocehiliosan/yadm/issues ## AUTHOR Tim Byrne ## SEE ALSO git(1), gpg(1) https://thelocehiliosan.github.io/yadm/