dotlinker (doli)

dotlinker (CLI: doli) helps you persist and synchronize configuration across multiple systems by linking local config paths to either:

• chezmoi (Git-based dotfiles management)
• Nextcloud (file-sync based persistence)

It is designed to be simple, deterministic, and safe by default (with timestamped backups).

Features

• Default config path: ~/.config/dotlinker/config.yaml (XDG-aware via XDG_CONFIG_HOME)
• Backends:
  • chezmoi: imports paths via chezmoi add
  • cloud: copies data to a destination directory, creates .bak backups, and links back with symlinks
• Unit tests via unittest
• Makefile target: make test

Installation

pip install .

Or editable install for development:

pip install -e .

Usage

Show help:

doli --help
doli

Add a mapping (non-interactive):

doli add -N zshrc -b chezmoi -s ~/.zshrc
doli add -N nvim  -b cloud   -s ~/.config/nvim -d ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.config/nvim

Run the linking/import process:

doli pull

Use a custom config path:

doli -c ./my-config.yaml add -N nvim -b cloud -s ~/.config/nvim -d ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.config/nvim
doli -c ./my-config.yaml pull

Configuration format

~/.config/dotlinker/config.yaml

mappings:
  - name: zshrc
    backend: chezmoi
    src: ~/.zshrc

  - name: nvim
    backend: cloud
    src: ~/.config/nvim
    dest: ~/Nextcloud/dotfiles/.config/nvim

Notes

• For backend: cloud, dest is required.

• cloud creates timestamped backups:

  • destination backups: dest.<timestamp>.bak
  • source backups: src.<timestamp>.bak

• If src is already a symlink pointing to dest, doli pull is a NOOP.

Development

Run tests:

make test

Run tests verbosely:

make test-verbose

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.

Author

Kevin Veen-Birkenbach https://www.veen.world/