yadm - Yet Another Dotfiles Manager
yadm command [options]
yadm git-command-or-alias [options]
yadm init [-f] [-w dir]
yadm clone url [-f] [-w dir] [-b branch] [--bootstrap] [--no-bootstrap]
yadm config name [value]
yadm config [-e]
yadm list [-a]
yadm bootstrap
yadm encrypt
yadm decrypt [-l]
yadm alt
yadm perms
yadm enter [ command ]
yadm git-crypt [ options ]
yadm transcrypt [ options ]
yadm upgrade [-f]
yadm introspect category
yadm is a tool for managing a collection of files across multiple com‐
puters, using a shared Git repository. In addition, yadm provides a
feature to select alternate versions of files for particular systems.
Lastly, yadm supplies the ability to manage a subset of secure files,
which are encrypted before they are included in the repository.
git-command or git-alias
Any command not internally handled by yadm is passed through to
git(1). Git commands or aliases are invoked with the yadm man‐
aged repository. The working directory for Git commands will be
the configured work-tree (usually $HOME).
Dotfiles are managed by using standard git commands; add, com‐
mit, push, pull, etc.
The config command is not passed directly through. Instead use
the gitconfig command (see below).
alt Create symbolic links and process templates for any managed
files matching the naming rules described in the ALTERNATES and
TEMPLATES sections. It is usually unnecessary to run this com‐
mand, as yadm automatically processes alternates by default.
This automatic behavior can be disabled by setting the configu‐
ration yadm.auto-alt to "false".
bootstrap
Execute $HOME/.config/yadm/bootstrap if it exists.
clone url
Clone a remote repository for tracking dotfiles. After the con‐
tents of the remote repository have been fetched, a "check out"
of the remote HEAD branch is attempted. If there are conflict‐
ing files already present in the work-tree, the local version
will be left unmodified and you'll have to review and resolve
the difference.
The repository is stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/repo.git.
By default, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be
overridden with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite
an existing repository by providing the -f option. If you want
to use a branch other than the remote HEAD branch you can spec‐
ify it using the -b option. By default yadm will ask the user
if the bootstrap program should be run (if it exists). The op‐
tions --bootstrap or --no-bootstrap will either force the boot‐
strap to be run, or prevent it from being run, without prompting
the user.
config This command manages configurations for yadm. This command
works exactly the way git-config(1) does. See the CONFIGURATION
section for more details.
decrypt
Decrypt all files stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive.
Files decrypted will be relative to the configured work-tree
(usually $HOME). Using the -l option will list the files stored
without extracting them.
encrypt
Encrypt all files matching the patterns found in $HOME/.con‐
fig/yadm/encrypt. See the ENCRYPTION section for more details.
enter Run a sub-shell with all Git variables set. Exit the sub-shell
the same way you leave your normal shell (usually with the
"exit" command). This sub-shell can be used to easily interact
with your yadm repository using "git" commands. This could be
useful if you are using a tool which uses Git directly, such as
tig, vim-fugitive, git-cola, etc.
Optionally, you can provide a command after "enter", and instead
of invoking your shell, that command will be run with all of the
Git variables exposed to the command's environment.
Emacs Tramp and Magit can manage files by using this configura‐
tion:
(add-to-list 'tramp-methods
'("yadm"
(tramp-login-program "yadm")
(tramp-login-args (("enter")))
(tramp-login-env (("SHELL") ("/bin/sh")))
(tramp-remote-shell "/bin/sh")
(tramp-remote-shell-args ("-c"))))
With this config, use (magit-status "/yadm::").
git-crypt options
If git-crypt is installed, this command allows you to pass op‐
tions directly to git-crypt, with the environment configured to
use the yadm repository.
git-crypt enables transparent encryption and decryption of files
in a git repository. You can read https://github.com/AGWA/git-
crypt for details.
gitconfig
Pass options to the git config command. Since yadm already uses
the config command to manage its own configurations, this com‐
mand is provided as a way to change configurations of the repos‐
itory managed by yadm. One useful case might be to configure
the repository so untracked files are shown in status commands.
yadm initially configures its repository so that untracked files
are not shown. If you wish use the default Git behavior (to
show untracked files and directories), you can remove this con‐
figuration.
yadm gitconfig --unset status.showUntrackedFiles
help Print a summary of yadm commands.
init Initialize a new, empty repository for tracking dotfiles. The
repository is stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/repo.git. By
default, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be
overridden with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite
an existing repository by providing the -f option.
list Print a list of files managed by yadm. The -a option will cause
all managed files to be listed. Otherwise, the list will only
include files from the current directory or below.
introspect category
Report internal yadm data. Supported categories are commands,
configs, repo, and switches. The purpose of introspection is to
support command line completion.
perms Update permissions as described in the PERMISSIONS section. It
is usually unnecessary to run this command, as yadm automati‐
cally processes permissions by default. This automatic behavior
can be disabled by setting the configuration yadm.auto-perms to
"false".
transcrypt options
If transcrypt is installed, this command allows you to pass op‐
tions directly to transcrypt, with the environment configured to
use the yadm repository.
transcrypt enables transparent encryption and decryption of
files in a git repository. You can read
https://github.com/elasticdog/transcrypt for details.
upgrade
Version 3 of yadm uses a different directory for storing data.
When you start to use version 3 for the first time, you may see
warnings about moving your data to this new directory. The eas‐
iest way to accomplish this is by running "yadm upgrade". This
command will start by moving your yadm repo to the new path.
Next it will move any archive data. If the archive is tracked
within your yadm repo, this command will "stage" the renaming of
that file in the repo's index.
Upgrading will attempt to de-initialize and re-initialize your
submodules. If your submodules cannot be de-initialized, the up‐
grade will fail. The most common reason submodules will fail to
de-initialize is because they have local modifications. If you
are willing to lose the local modifications to those submodules,
you can use the -f option with the "upgrade" command to force
the de-initialization.
After running "yadm upgrade", you should run "yadm status" to
review changes which have been staged, and commit them to your
repository.
You can read https://yadm.io/docs/upgrade_from_2 for more infor‐
mation.
version
Print the version of yadm.
yadm supports a set of universal options that alter the paths it uses.
The default paths are documented in the FILES section. Any path speci‐
fied by these options must be fully qualified. If you always want to
override one or more of these paths, it may be useful to create an
alias for the yadm command. For example, the following alias could be
used to override the repository directory.
alias yadm='yadm --yadm-repo /alternate/path/to/repo'
The following is the full list of universal options. Each option
should be followed by a path.
-Y,--yadm-dir
Override the yadm directory. yadm stores its configurations
relative to this directory.
--yadm-data
Override the yadm data directory. yadm stores its data relative
to this directory.
--yadm-repo
Override the location of the yadm repository.
--yadm-config
Override the location of the yadm configuration file.
--yadm-encrypt
Override the location of the yadm encryption configuration.
--yadm-archive
Override the location of the yadm encrypted files archive.
--yadm-bootstrap
Override the location of the yadm bootstrap program.
yadm uses a configuration file named $HOME/.config/yadm/config. This
file uses the same format as git-config(1). Also, you can control the
contents of the configuration file via the yadm config command (which
works exactly like git-config). For example, to disable alternates you
can run the command:
yadm config yadm.auto-alt false
The following is the full list of supported configurations:
yadm.alt-copy
If set to "true", alternate files will be copies instead of sym‐
bolic links. This might be desirable, because some systems may
not properly support symlinks.
yadm.auto-alt
Disable the automatic linking described in the section ALTER‐
NATES. If disabled, you may still run "yadm alt" manually to
create the alternate links. This feature is enabled by default.
yadm.auto-exclude
Disable the automatic exclusion of patterns defined in
$HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt. This feature is enabled by default.
yadm.auto-perms
Disable the automatic permission changes described in the sec‐
tion PERMISSIONS. If disabled, you may still run yadm perms
manually to update permissions. This feature is enabled by de‐
fault.
yadm.auto-private-dirs
Disable the automatic creating of private directories described
in the section PERMISSIONS.
yadm.cipher
Configure which encryption system is used by the encrypt/decrypt
commands. Valid options are "gpg" and "openssl". The default is
"gpg". Detailed information can be found in the section ENCRYP‐
TION.
yadm.git-program
Specify an alternate program to use instead of "git". By de‐
fault, the first "git" found in $PATH is used.
yadm.gpg-perms
Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.gnupg/*. This feature
is enabled by default.
yadm.gpg-program
Specify an alternate program to use instead of "gpg". By de‐
fault, the first "gpg" found in $PATH is used.
yadm.gpg-recipient
Asymmetrically encrypt files with a gpg public/private key pair.
Provide a "key ID" to specify which public key to encrypt with.
The key must exist in your public keyrings. Multiple recipients
can be specified (separated by space). If left blank or not
provided, symmetric encryption is used instead. If set to
"ASK", gpg will interactively ask for recipients. See the EN‐
CRYPTION section for more details. This feature is disabled by
default.
yadm.openssl-ciphername
Specify which cipher should be used by openssl. "aes-256-cbc"
is used by default.
yadm.openssl-old
Newer versions of openssl support the pbkdf2 key derivation
function. This is used by default. If this configuration is set
to "true", openssl operations will use options compatible with
older versions of openssl. If you change this option, you will
need to recreate your encrypted archive.
yadm.openssl-program
Specify an alternate program to use instead of "openssl". By
default, the first "openssl" found in $PATH is used.
yadm.ssh-perms
Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.ssh/*. This feature is
enabled by default.
The following five "local" configurations are not stored in the
$HOME/.config/yadm/config, they are stored in the local repository.
local.class
Specify a class for the purpose of symlinking alternate files.
By default, no class will be matched. The local host can be as‐
signed multiple classes using command:
yadm config --add local.class <additional-class>
local.arch
Override the architecture for the purpose of symlinking alter‐
nate files.
local.hostname
Override the hostname for the purpose of symlinking alternate
files.
local.os
Override the OS for the purpose of symlinking alternate files.
local.user
Override the user for the purpose of symlinking alternate files.
When managing a set of files across different systems, it can be useful
to have an automated way of choosing an alternate version of a file for
a different operating system, host, user, etc.
yadm will automatically create a symbolic link to the appropriate ver‐
sion of a file, when a valid suffix is appended to the filename. The
suffix contains the conditions that must be met for that file to be
used.
The suffix begins with "##", followed by any number of conditions sepa‐
rated by commas.
##<condition>[,<condition>,...]
Each condition is an attribute/value pair, separated by a period. Some
conditions do not require a "value", and in that case, the period and
value can be omitted. Most attributes can be abbreviated as a single
letter.
<attribute>[.<value>]
These are the supported attributes, in the order of the weighted prece‐
dence:
template, t
Valid when the value matches a supported template processor.
See the TEMPLATES section for more details.
user, u
Valid if the value matches the current user. Current user is
calculated by running id -u -n.
hostname, h
Valid if the value matches the short hostname. Hostname is cal‐
culated by running uname -n, and trimming off any domain.
class, c
Valid if the value matches the local.class configuration. Class
must be manually set using yadm config local.class <class>. See
the CONFIGURATION section for more details about setting lo‐
cal.class.
distro, d
Valid if the value matches the distro. Distro is calculated by
running lsb_release -si or by inspecting the ID from /etc/os-re‐
lease.
distro_family, f
Valid if the value matches the distro family. Distro family is
calculated by inspecting the ID_LIKE line from /etc/os-release.
os, o Valid if the value matches the OS. OS is calculated by running
uname -s.
arch, a
Valid if the value matches the architecture. Architecture is
calculated by running uname -m.
default
Valid when no other alternate is valid.
extension, e
A special "condition" that doesn't affect the selection process.
Its purpose is instead to allow the alternate file to end with a
certain extension to e.g. make editors highlight the content
properly.
NOTE: The OS for "Windows Subsystem for Linux" is reported as "WSL",
even though uname identifies as "Linux".
You may use any number of conditions, in any order. An alternate will
only be used if ALL conditions are valid. For all files managed by
yadm's repository or listed in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt, if they
match this naming convention, symbolic links will be created for the
most appropriate version.
The "most appropriate" version is determined by calculating a score for
each version of a file. A template is always scored higher than any
symlink condition. The number of conditions is the next largest factor
in scoring. Files with more conditions will always be favored. Any in‐
valid condition will disqualify that file completely.
If you don't care to have all versions of alternates stored in the same
directory as the generated symlink, you can place them in the
$HOME/.config/yadm/alt directory. The generated symlink or processed
template will be created using the same relative path.
Alternate linking may best be demonstrated by example. Assume the fol‐
lowing files are managed by yadm's repository:
- $HOME/path/example.txt##default
- $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,hostname.host1
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,hostname.host2
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux,hostname.host1
- $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux,hostname.host2
If running on a Macbook named "host2", yadm will create a symbolic link
which looks like this:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,host‐
name.host2
However, on another Mackbook named "host3", yadm will create a symbolic
link which looks like this:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin
Since the hostname doesn't match any of the managed files, the more
generic version is chosen.
If running on a Linux server named "host4", the link will be:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux
If running on a Solaris server, the link will use the default version:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##default
If running on a system, with class set to "Work", the link will be:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work
If no "##default" version exists and no files have valid conditions,
then no link will be created.
Links are also created for directories named this way, as long as they
have at least one yadm managed file within them (at the top level).
yadm will automatically create these links by default. This can be dis‐
abled using the yadm.auto-alt configuration. Even if disabled, links
can be manually created by running yadm alt.
Class is a special value which is stored locally on each host (inside
the local repository). To use alternate symlinks using class, you must
set the value of class using the configuration local.class. This is
set like any other yadm configuration with the yadm config command. The
following sets the class to be "Work".
yadm config local.class Work
Similarly, the values of architecture, os, hostname, and user can be
manually overridden using the configuration options local.arch, lo‐
cal.os, local.hostname, and local.user.
If a template condition is defined in an alternate file's "##" suffix,
and the necessary dependencies for the template are available, then the
file will be processed to create or overwrite files.
Supported template processors:
default
This is yadm's built-in template processor. This processor is
very basic, with a Jinja-like syntax. The advantage of this pro‐
cessor is that it only depends upon awk, which is available on
most *nix systems. To use this processor, specify the value of
"default" or just leave the value off (e.g. "##template").
ESH ESH is a template processor written in POSIX compliant shell. It
allows executing shell commands within templates. This can be
used to reference your own configurations within templates, for
example:
<% yadm config mysection.myconfig %>
To use the ESH template processor, specify the value of "esh"
j2cli To use the j2cli Jinja template processor, specify the value of
"j2" or "j2cli".
envtpl To use the envtpl Jinja template processor, specify the value of
"j2" or "envtpl".
NOTE: Specifying "j2" as the processor will attempt to use j2cli or en‐
vtpl, whichever is available.
If the template processor specified is available, templates will be
processed to create or overwrite files.
During processing, the following variables are available in the tem‐
plate:
Default Jinja or ESH Description
------------- ------------- ----------------------------
yadm.arch YADM_ARCH uname -m
yadm.class YADM_CLASS Last locally defined class
yadm.classes YADM_CLASSES All classes
yadm.distro YADM_DISTRO lsb_release -si
yadm.distro_family YADM_DISTRO_FAMILY ID_LIKE from /etc/os-release
yadm.hostname YADM_HOSTNAME uname -n (without domain)
yadm.os YADM_OS uname -s
yadm.source YADM_SOURCE Template filename
yadm.user YADM_USER id -u -n
env.VAR Environment variable VAR
NOTE: The OS for "Windows Subsystem for Linux" is reported as "WSL",
even though uname identifies as "Linux".
NOTE: If lsb_release is not available, DISTRO will be the ID specified
in /etc/os-release.
Examples:
whatever##template with the following content
{% if yadm.user == "harvey" %}
config={{yadm.class}}-{{yadm.os}}
{% else %}
config=dev-whatever
{% include "whatever.extra" %}
{% endif %}
would output a file named whatever with the following content if the
user is "harvey":
config=work-Linux
and the following otherwise (if whatever.extra contains admin=false):
config=dev-whatever
admin=false
An equivalent Jinja template named whatever##template.j2 would look
like:
{% if YADM_USER == 'harvey' -%}
config={{YADM_CLASS}}-{{YADM_OS}}
{% else -%}
config=dev-whatever
{% include 'whatever.extra' %}
{% endif -%}
An equivalent ESH templated named whatever##template.esh would look
like:
<% if [ "$YADM_USER" = "harvey" ]; then -%>
config=<%= $YADM_CLASS %>-<%= $YADM_OS %>
<% else -%>
config=dev-whatever
<%+ whatever.extra %>
<% fi -%>
It can be useful to manage confidential files, like SSH or GPG keys,
across multiple systems. However, doing so would put plain text data
into a Git repository, which often resides on a public system. yadm can
make it easy to encrypt and decrypt a set of files so the encrypted
version can be maintained in the Git repository. This feature will
only work if a supported tool is available. Both gpg(1) and openssl(1)
are supported. gpg is used by default, but openssl can be configured
with the yadm.cipher configuration.
To use this feature, a list of patterns must be created and saved as
$HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt. This list of patterns should be relative
to the configured work-tree (usually $HOME). For example:
.ssh/*.key
.gnupg/*.gpg
Standard filename expansions (*, ?, [) are supported. If you have Bash
version 4, you may use "**" to match all subdirectories. Other shell
expansions like brace and tilde are not supported. Spaces in paths are
supported, and should not be quoted. If a directory is specified, its
contents will be included, but not recursively. Paths beginning with a
"!" will be excluded.
The yadm encrypt command will find all files matching the patterns, and
prompt for a password. Once a password has confirmed, the matching
files will be encrypted and saved as $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive.
The "encrypt" and "archive" files should be added to the yadm reposi‐
tory so they are available across multiple systems.
To decrypt these files later, or on another system run yadm decrypt and
provide the correct password. After files are decrypted, permissions
are automatically updated as described in the PERMISSIONS section.
Symmetric encryption is used by default, but asymmetric encryption may
be enabled using the yadm.gpg-recipient configuration.
NOTE: It is recommended that you use a private repository when keeping
confidential files, even though they are encrypted.
Patterns found in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt are automatically added to
the repository's info/exclude file every time yadm encrypt is run.
This is to prevent accidentally committing sensitive data to the repos‐
itory. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-exclude configuration.
Using transcrypt or git-crypt
A completely separate option for encrypting data is to install and use
transcrypt or git-crypt. Once installed, you can use these tools by
running yadm transcrypt or yadm git-crypt. These tools enables trans‐
parent encryption and decryption of files in a git repository. See the
following web sites for more information:
- https://github.com/elasticdog/transcrypt
- https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt
When files are checked out of a Git repository, their initial permis‐
sions are dependent upon the user's umask. Because of this, yadm will
automatically update the permissions of some file paths. The "group"
and "others" permissions will be removed from the following files:
- $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive
- All files matching patterns in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt
- The SSH directory and files, .ssh/*
- The GPG directory and files, .gnupg/*
yadm will automatically update permissions by default. This can be dis‐
abled using the yadm.auto-perms configuration. Even if disabled, per‐
missions can be manually updated by running yadm perms. The .ssh di‐
rectory processing can be disabled using the yadm.ssh-perms configura‐
tion. The .gnupg directory processing can be disabled using the
yadm.gpg-perms configuration.
When cloning a repo which includes data in a .ssh or .gnupg directory,
if those directories do not exist at the time of cloning, yadm will
create the directories with mask 0700 prior to merging the fetched data
into the work-tree.
When running a Git command and .ssh or .gnupg directories do not exist,
yadm will create those directories with mask 0700 prior to running the
Git command. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-private-dirs con‐
figuration.
For every command yadm supports, a program can be provided to run be‐
fore or after that command. These are referred to as "hooks". yadm
looks for hooks in the directory $HOME/.config/yadm/hooks. Each hook
is named using a prefix of pre_ or post_, followed by the command which
should trigger the hook. For example, to create a hook which is run af‐
ter every yadm pull command, create a hook named post_pull. Hooks must
have the executable file permission set.
If a pre_ hook is defined, and the hook terminates with a non-zero exit
status, yadm will refuse to run the yadm command. For example, if a
pre_commit hook is defined, but that command ends with a non-zero exit
status, the yadm commit will never be run. This allows one to "short-
circuit" any operation using a pre_ hook.
Hooks have the following environment variables available to them at
runtime:
YADM_HOOK_COMMAND
The command which triggered the hook
YADM_HOOK_EXIT
The exit status of the yadm command
YADM_HOOK_FULL_COMMAND
The yadm command with all command line arguments (parameters are
space delimited, and any space, tab or backslash will be escaped
with a backslash)
YADM_HOOK_REPO
The path to the yadm repository
YADM_HOOK_WORK
The path to the work-tree
All of yadm's configurations are relative to the "yadm directory".
yadm uses the "XDG Base Directory Specification" to determine this di‐
rectory. If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined as a
fully qualified path, this directory will be $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/yadm.
Otherwise it will be $HOME/.config/yadm.
Similarly, yadm's data files are relative to the "yadm data directory".
yadm uses the "XDG Base Directory Specification" to determine this di‐
rectory. If the environment variable $XDG_DATA_HOME is defined as a
fully qualified path, this directory will be $XDG_DATA_HOME/yadm. Oth‐
erwise it will be $HOME/.local/share/yadm.
The following are the default paths yadm uses for its own data. Most
of these paths can be altered using universal options. See the OPTIONS
section for details.
$HOME/.config/yadm
The yadm directory. By default, all configs yadm stores is rela‐
tive to this directory.
$HOME/.local/share/yadm
The yadm data directory. By default, all data yadm stores is
relative to this directory.
$YADM_DIR/config
Configuration file for yadm.
$YADM_DIR/alt
This is a directory to keep "alternate files" without having
them side-by-side with the resulting symlink or processed tem‐
plate. Alternate files placed in this directory will be created
relative to $HOME instead.
$YADM_DATA/repo.git
Git repository used by yadm.
$YADM_DIR/encrypt
List of globs used for encrypt/decrypt
$YADM_DATA/archive
All files encrypted with yadm encrypt are stored in this file.
yadm init
Create an empty repo for managing files
yadm add .bash_profile ; yadm commit
Add .bash_profile to the Git index and create a new commit
yadm remote add origin <url>
Add a remote origin to an existing repository
yadm push -u origin master
Initial push of master to origin
echo .ssh/*.key >> $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt
Add a new pattern to the list of encrypted files
yadm encrypt ; yadm add ~/.local/share/yadm/archive ; yadm commit
Commit a new set of encrypted files
Report issues or create pull requests at GitHub:
https://github.com/TheLocehiliosan/yadm/issues
git(1), gpg(1) openssl(1) transcrypt(1) git-crypt(1)
https://yadm.io/