dotup

A command line tool for backing up dotfiles. Inspired by yadm.

Setup a new repository:

Initialize a repository

dotup init

This will:

• Initialize the dotup git repo.
• Create dotup's configuration file config.toml. After running dotup init you can run dotup status to see that config.toml exists in the dotup repo but has not been committed or added to staging.

Add a file to the list of tracked files:

dotup track ~/.zshrc

Check the status of the local repo:

dotup status

Commit the change:

dotup commit -m "Initial file"

Change branch to main:

dotup branch -M main

Add the remote origin (This repo should be set up already using Codeberg/Gitlab/Github/Gitea or similar.)

dotup remote add origin git@github.com:concur1/dotfiles.git

Push to the origin:

dotup push -u origin main

Clone an existing repository (MAKE SURE TO INCLUDE THE .)

Clone the remote repo into the local dotup repo with:

dotup clone <url> .

The config.toml file should already include a section for the file mappings under [files.hostname1]. But you should now also see that the config.toml file has been updated to include a section with the current [files.hostname2].

Tracking files

Add a file to the list of tracked files

dotup track <important file>

Remove a file from the list of tracked files

dotup untrack <important file>

Use command line git or a git GUI/TUI application

Using the run command we can run a (git ui) application whilst the dotup repo files are being sync's with the system files. To do this:

1. Create a section for the program you to be launched in the config.toml:

   [program.gitui] # This is the name of the section we will be configuring
   name = "gitui" # This is the name of the program that will be running
   additional_args = "--watcher --logging" # These are the arguments that will be supplied to the program
   

2. You will need to install the program you want to run using you prefered package manager e.g. cargo install gitui.
3. Run program and sync files with dotup:

   dotup run gitui
   

By default gitui, lazygit, gitkraken and hx are already configured.

or Add files/changes to git with dotup followed by a git command

dotup status 
dotup add <important file>
dotup commit

Example usage:

TODO:

• Get tracking working on local system.
  • Use repo path in notify watcher
  • Get untrack working.
  • Get syncing working on local system.
  • Get syncing to pick up newly added files
• Get notify/sync command working.
• create config
• Run gitui/lazygit/other from updot
• Update to use git commands
• add repo_names
• rename data.json and move to be in the repo
• add check to ensure the mappings are file to file.
• add check to make sure that each file is mapped once per hostname.
• Add logging.
• Get working for multiple systems (generalize home/local/config)
• change name to dotup
• add additional info to updot status
• Create tests:
  • test track
  • test untrack
  • test git commands including merge
  • test gitui/lazygit launches ect
  • Fix warnings.
• Create just file with linting/tests.
• is 'track' the right word? Maybe 'mirror' is better?

some cases to consider:

• a file is merged into a system that doesn't need it, the file is untracked. Should the file still exist?
• should untack only work if the file exists locally or should we copy the file locally before using it?
• merging/cloning a repo with files more recent than the system files will lead to the system files being lost.

  • soln1 - create a seperate repo that only contains backups of the system files.

  • soln2 - detect when a clone/merge is going to overwrite system files

  • soln3 - only copy from system to the repo and never from the repo to the system.

  • soln4 - use git pull --allow-unrelated-histories and disallow/raise error for clone.

  • soln5 - make tracking seperate. Check if the tracking files match before allowing merge/pull1.

  • soln6 - have apply command that will apply the local repo to the system files.

    • This apply command will :
      • check that there is no merge conflict in the repo
      • check that the the tracked files in the repo are a subset of the system tracked files. If there are repo tracked files that are not in system then raise a error/warning/options: "Additional Tracked files detected in local repo. Add these to the list of tracked files."

  • soln7 - Do not use a shared tracked files file. Instead each file will be specified locally or with a config file.

    • if using cli to specify files to track