ddot 0.4.0

Dotfile manager using the Devinstaller framework

Ddot

Your dev environment manager

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[[TOC]]

Introduction

Ddot is a devinstaller application created using the devinstaller framework.

For more info read below

Getting Started

pipx run ddot run

There needs to be a devfile in the current directory. Any one of these:

• devfile.toml
• devfile.yaml or devfile.yml
• devfile.json

Installation

There are two method to use the application:

1. Using Pipx to directly run the application
2. Installing the application on your machine

Using Pipx method is recommended.

Method 1: Using Pipx

Why this method is recommended?

You can use Pipx to directly run the latest version of ddot without installing it in your machine. This way your machine stays clean and you don't need to worry about updating ddot.

You can also install ddot in your machine using pipx if that's what you want.

Usage without installation

1. Install pipx

• On MacOS

brew install pipx
pipx ensurepath

• Other OS

python3 -m pip install --user pipx
python3 -m pipx ensurepath

for more information check out Pipx.

2. Using ddot

pipx run ddot <command> # Example: pipx run ddot run --verbose

Please note that the commands in the section below will need the pipx run prefix with this method. Other method doesn't require this prefix.

Usage with installation

pipx install ddot

Method 2: Machine installation

You can also install ddot without pipx. Although this is discouraged as ddot may disturb your system packages.

python -m pip install ddot

Commands

• Show the ddot version

ddot --version

• Show the help menu

ddot --help

• Show all the modules available in the devfile

ddot show

• Execute the modules

ddot run

This command will open up a interactive prompt which you can use to navigate and select all the modules you want to execute.

You select modules using your SPACEBAR key and naviage using your ARROW keys.

• You can also skip the interactive prompt by running

ddot run -m <module name>

Here <module name> is the name of the module in the devfile at the current directory.

• You can also specify the location to the devfile if it's not present in the current directory or if it's named differently

ddot run --spec-file <spec file location>

• You can also set the verbose flag using

ddot run --verbose

By default the verbose mode is disabled, so you won't see any of the commands that are being executed but instead will see a progress bar.

But if you need to see it just run using the verbose flag.

What is Devinstaller?

Devinstaller is a framework to execute the devfiles.

What are devfiles?

Devfiles is made up of 2 file:

1. Spec file
2. Prog file

Spec file?

The guiding principle behind the Spec file is to give a declarative and a platform agnostic way to specify a task which then can be handled by the devinstaller application and make that happen.

In Devinstaller the basic building block for anything is called a "module".

And you execute/install the module to do something.

Modules

We have modules for:

1. file

2. folder

3. link

4. app

5. phony

6. group

   • file, folder and link modules Say you want to create a file in a declarative way. For this you use the file module and specify where and what the file is and the devinstaller will handle how to create/update/delete the file.

     This way your file module is declarative and the application handles everything required to make it happen, including on how to do it on different OS.

     This is how the file, folder and the link module works.

   • app module Then we have the app module. App module is for system applications. Here you need to write in some imperative instructions on how a specific application is to be installed. But the beauty behind this you can add in instructions on how to do the same on different platforms and the overall module becomes declarative for other users.

     Example: You can write up the instructions to install ddot on different OS in a devfile, which an another user can import the devfile into their devfile and it will give them a declarative way to install ddot on their machine and they don't have to worry about how it's going to be done.

   • phony and group module But we understand that not everything can be put in a declarative way so for those cases we have the group and the phony module. You can combine these modules in any fashion to translate your imperative instructions into a more declarative way.

dGenerate

For writing up spec file you can use the web application dGenerate or you can write it in any text editor.

Using dGenerate will give you better user experience.

• Features of dGenerate

  1. Write and save in any file format. Formats supported include:

     • TOML
     • YAML
     • JSON

  2. You can upload existing devfile and do some changes and download it.

  3. You can share the link to your dGenerate devfile and send it to anyone. And they can go to the link make their changes and download it.

  4. dGenerate is a completely offline application and it doesn't send any data to any servers. So you can be assured of the safety of your data. Even for generating the share link for your devfile, we don't store any data on any server. All the data required are in the link itself. You might have probably noticed that all the share links are unusually long and now you know the reason for it.

Prog file?

TODO

License

MIT License

Copyright (c) 2021 Justine Kizhakkinedath