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Dotfiles

A few years back I have observed that my colleague was keeping Vim config files in version control, other scripts were in their own repositories as well. I thought it was very smart way to keep track over time. I also started to keep track of my scripts, notes and dot files in the home in Git version control.

People in software community have begun to share their files on Github and other platforms.

In 2016 I have tried major approaches described at dotfiles.github.io

Some of them are very simple that I used to do myself which is simply copy the files from the repo into the homedir. Yes, it keeps home dir pure, but forces you to spend time on synchronization.

Other tools suggest to have Git working dir in your ~, while repository resides somewhere else. There are safe guards in place, so you don't git clean and remove any untracked files from your home dir. I have used this approach for a bit, but dropped it. It is way too complex for the operations I needed.

There are quite a few package-based approaches, encryption-enabled git repositories and cross-platform managers that can follow JSON or YAML configuration instructions.

Some may manage files with ansible.

I have landed on Homeshick:

  • Simple shell-based tool
  • Lots of tests
  • Does not change file names, you can still copy files as if the tool was not there
  • Supports multiple repositories
  • Allows you to synchronize multiple computers using source control sites like github or gitlab

The one change I made in my Homeshick fork is to get rid of home directory and to be able to copy/link directly. Yes, there is a necessary README and LICENCE which should not be copied or .git itself, but it was relatively easy to teach Homeshick to ignore it.

I have several repos in Homeshick control: general dot files, mac-specific files and scripts, and private repo that hold secrets and keys. If you want to check out this setup - look at this shell script that I use to install the files.

My personal setup is now based on one command (for MacOS):

# Basic example if you trust curl
curl -L -s https://git.io/all.files | bash

If you are sceptical about cURL to shell execution, which you should be! I have one extra tool called urlsh that verifies detached GPG signatures that accompany all content from the corresponding URL.

In this more secure process, you have to get/compile urlsh first, than simply run:

# Advanced bootstrap process (with multi-level GPG verification)
urlsh https://git.io/all.files
# ^ it will verify https://git.io/all.files.asc before executing downloaded commands in the shell

To be continued... (with encyption using keybase, upspin and other thoughts on dot files)