A simple dotfile management system designed to make updating/tweaking configurations a breeze. Dotfile templates are based around a central configuration file which specifies commonly used configuration options. The dotfiles, along with these central configuration files may be distributed to other systems and slightly tweaked to suit the environment.
gem install dotfile
dotfile --help
Usage: dotfile [option] [file]
-u, --update [FILE] Update dotfile/s locally.
-e, --edit FILE Edit a matching dotfile with $EDITOR.
-s, --set OPTION:VALUE[,...] Temporarily set an option value.
-c, --edit-config Edit dotfile.conf.
-l, --edit-local Edit ~/.dotfile.conf.local.
-g, --edit-groups Edit groups.conf.
-S, --setup Prepare the local environment.
-q, --quiet Suppress all non-critical output.
-v, --version Show version number.
-h, --help Show help.
Some commands can be combined. For example, you may want to edit and then update a certain file in a single command:
dotfile -e FILE -u
# Equivalent of...
dotfile -e FILE -u FILE
... or edit the local configuration file and then run a full update.
dotfile -l -u
Filenames specified above (FILE) need not be exact, as dotfile will take any matching dotfile/s defined in groups.conf. Where multiple matches are found, dotfile will present a list of choices.
The dotfiles directory should be (in order of preference) $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dotfile, ~/.config/dotfile or ~/.dotfile. Files or directories referred to after this point will be found under this directory.
The dotfiles directory should include the following files/directories:
dotfiles/ scripts/ files/ dotfile.conf groups.conf
Dotfiles are stored as one of two types based on their filename. Files ending in a ".template" suffix will be compiled before updating the local copy. In these files, any instance of {{some_option}} will be substituted with the corresponding some_option: found in dotfile.conf. All other files will be updated as is (these are called "static files").
Each dotfile is part of a "group" which is specified in groups.conf. Each group has it's own directory under dotfiles. Any dotfile within a group that is listed under groups in dotfile.conf will be copied over during a dotfile --update. See the default/groups.conf file in this directory for more information on how this file works.
Ruby or shell script to execute before or after installation based on the execute_before/after options in dotfile.conf. Ruby scripts must be suffixed .rb or they will be treated as sh scripts. Scripts specified in dotfile.conf need not include their suffix.
Where there is a file: prefix to an option in a template file, it refers to the corresponding file found in the files directory. The file: prefix to the option should be left off in dotfile.conf. For example, a theme file specified {{file:x_theme}} in a template file may be written as x_theme: themes/my_theme in dotfile.conf. This file should be found under files/themes/my_theme. The contents of the file will be inserted into the template file at the point of the option.
To override options in dotfile.conf, use the "local" configuration file ~/.dotfile.conf.local. Ideally, dotfile.conf will define a set of sensible "base" settings, while ~/.dotfile.conf.local, will define settings on a per system basis. For instance, setting the groups option in ~/.dotfile.conf.local, you can choose to skip certain groups that may not be relevant to the current system.
For an example setup, see my own dotfiles repository.