dotlink 0.4.0

Automate deployment of dotfiles to local paths or remote hosts

dotlink is a simple script to automate deploying an arbitrary set of “dotfiles” from a repository to either a local path or even a remote host using ssh/scp.

dotlink does not manage the dotfiles themselves, but uses a simple text file mapping dotfile names in the repository to their ultimate location relative to the target path. This allows you to have files without the dot prefix, for instance, or avoid replicating deep directory structures to track a single file.

setup

To install dotlink system-wide:

# pip install dotlink

Or if you want to hack on dotlink a bit, clone the repo and run:

# python setup.py develop

usage

You’ll first need to create a mapping file in the root of your dotfile repository named .dotfiles (or just dotfiles), following this format:

• Each line contains the local repository filename, optionally followed by a colon and the target filename if different than the local filename.

• External dotfile mappings can be included using #include “path/to/mapping”, and the requested map will be loaded as well. The requested path can either be an explicit filename, or a directory containing a mapping named dotfiles or .dotfiles.

• Comments are denoted by lines beginning with the # symbol, and are ignored.

An example mapping might look like:

# the dotfiles to care about aliases: .alias .bashrc .profile: .profile htop: .config/htop/htoprc vim: .vim vimrc: .vimrc

# some external dotfile paths to include #include “repo2/dotfiles” #include “/full/patt/to/repo3/”

Once the mapping is in place, run dotlink, and tell it where your source repository is, as well as where you want it to deploy to:

$ dotlink [path/to/repository] [[[user@]host:]path/to/target]

The source path is optional; dotlink will assume it’s your current directory if it finds a dotfiles mapping file unless you specify otherwise. The target path is also optional, and assumed to be your local home directory.

Targets can also include local paths, or remote paths accessible via ssh by providing a hostname as well as username if different than your current login.

todo

Some planned features and changes are:

• Add support for remote sources, like ssh/scp, as well as git repos or tarballs

• Generate mapping file from repository contents ?

advanced

If you’d like to embed dotlink within your dotfile repository, dotlink/dotlink.py is a self-contained script, specifically to allow for this use case. Simply copy dotfile.py into your repository; it has no external dependencies.

legal

dotlink is copyright 2013 John Reese.

dotlink is licensed under the MIT license. See the LICENSE file for more details.