yadm - Yet Another Dotfiles Manager
yadm command [options]
yadm git-command-or-alias [options]
yadm init [-f] [-w directory]
yadm clone url [-f] [-w directory] [--bootstrap] [--no-bootstrap]
yadm config name [value]
yadm config [-e]
yadm list [-a]
yadm bootstrap
yadm encrypt
yadm enter
yadm decrypt [-l]
yadm alt
yadm perms
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 based on the operating
system or host name. 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 Jinja templates for any man-
aged files matching the naming rules described in the ALTERNATES
and JINJA 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/.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 "merge" of
origin/master is attempted. If there are conflicting files
already present in the work-tree, this merge will fail and
instead a "reset" of origin/master will be done, followed by a
"stash". This "stash" operation will preserve the original data.
You can review the stashed conflicts by running the command
yadm stash show -p
from within your $HOME directory. If you want to restore the
stashed data, you can run
yadm stash apply
or
yadm stash pop
The repository is stored in $HOME/.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. By default yadm will ask
the user if the bootstrap program should be run (if it exists).
The options --bootstrap or --no-bootstrap will either force the
bootstrap to be run, or prevent it from being run, without
prompting the user.
config This command manages configurations for yadm. This command
works exactly they way git-config(1) does. See the CONFIGURA-
TION section for more details.
decrypt
Decrypt all files stored in $HOME/.yadm/files.gpg. 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/.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. For
example, Emacs Tramp and Magit can manage files by using this
configuration:
(add-to-list 'tramp-methods
'("yadm"
(tramp-login-program "yadm")
(tramp-login-args (("enter")))
(tramp-remote-shell "/bin/sh")
(tramp-remote-shell-args ("-c"))))
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/.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".
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 fully qualified path.
-Y,--yadm-dir
Override the yadm 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/.yadm/config. This file
uses the same format as git-config(1). Also, you can control the con-
tents 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.auto-alt
Disable the automatic linking described in the section ALTER-
NATES. If disabled, you may still run yadm alt manually to cre-
ate the alternate links. 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
default.
yadm.ssh-perms
Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.ssh/*. This feature is
enabled by default.
yadm.gpg-perms
Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.gnupg/*. This feature
is enabled by default.
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. If left blank or
not provided, symmetric encryption is used instead. If set to
"ASK", gpg will interactively ask for recipients. See the
ENCRYPTION section for more details. This feature is disabled
by default.
yadm.gpg-program
Specify an alternate program to use instead of "gpg". By
default, the first "gpg" found in $PATH is used.
yadm.git-program
Specify an alternate program to use instead of "git". By
default, the first "git" found in $PATH is used.
These last four "local" configurations are not stored in the
$HOME/.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.
local.os
Override the OS for the purpose of symlinking alternate files.
local.hostname
Override the HOSTNAME 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, or user. yadm implements a feature
which will automatically create a symbolic link to the appropriate ver-
sion of a file, as long as you follow a specific naming convention.
yadm can detect files with names ending in any of the following:
##
##CLASS
##CLASS.OS
##CLASS.OS.HOSTNAME
##CLASS.OS.HOSTNAME.USER
##OS
##OS.HOSTNAME
##OS.HOSTNAME.USER
If there are any files managed by yadm's repository, or listed in
$HOME/.yadm/encrypt, which match this naming convention, symbolic links
will be created for the most appropriate version. This may best be
demonstrated by example. Assume the following files are managed by
yadm's repository:
- $HOME/path/example.txt##
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Work
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin.host1
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Darwin.host2
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux.host1
- $HOME/path/example.txt##Linux.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##Darwin.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##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##Linux
If running on a Solaris server, the link use the default "##" version:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##
If running on a system, with CLASS set to "Work", the link will be:
$HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##WORK
If no "##" version exists and no files match the current CLASS/OS/HOST-
NAME/USER, 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.
CLASS must be manually set using yadm config local.class <class>. OS
is determined by running uname -s, HOSTNAME by running hostname, and
USER by running id -u -n. yadm will automatically create these links
by default. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-alt configuration.
Even if disabled, links can be manually created by running yadm alt.
It is possible to use "%" as a "wildcard" in place of CLASS, OS, HOST-
NAME, or USER. For example, The following file could be linked for any
host when the user is "harvey".
$HOME/path/example.txt##%.%.harvey
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 OS, HOSTNAME, and USER can be manually over-
ridden using the configuration options local.os, local.hostname, and
local.user.
If the envtpl command is available, Jinja templates will also be pro-
cessed to create or overwrite real files. yadm will treat files ending
in
##yadm.j2
as Jinja templates. During processing, the following variables are set
according to the rules explained in the ALTERNATES section:
YADM_CLASS
YADM_OS
YADM_HOSTNAME
YADM_USER
For example, a file named whatever##yadm.j2 with the following content
{% if YADM_USER == 'harvey' -%}
config={{YADM_CLASS}}-{{ YADM_OS }}
{% else -%}
config=dev-whatever
{% endif -%}
would output a file named whatever with the following content if the
user is "harvey":
config=work-Linux
and the following otherwise:
config=dev-whatever
See http://jinja.pocoo.org/ for an overview of Jinja.
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
implements a feature which 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 the gpg(1) command is
available.
To use this feature, a list of patterns must be created and saved as
$HOME/.yadm/encrypt. This list of patterns should be relative to the
configured work-tree (usually $HOME). For example:
.ssh/*.key
.gnupg/*.gpg
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/.yadm/files.gpg. The pat-
terns and files.gpg should be added to the yadm repository 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.
When files are checked out of a Git repository, their initial permis-
sions are dependent upon the user's umask. This can result in confiden-
tial files with lax permissions.
To prevent this, yadm will automatically update the permissions of con-
fidential files. The "group" and "others" permissions will be removed
from the following files:
- $HOME/.yadm/files.gpg
- All files matching patterns in $HOME/.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 direc-
tory processing can be disabled using the yadm.ssh-perms configuration.
The following are the default paths yadm uses for its own data. These
paths can be altered using universal options. See the OPTIONS section
for details.
$HOME/.yadm
The yadm directory. By default, all data yadm stores is relative
to this directory.
$YADM_DIR/config
Configuration file for yadm.
$YADM_DIR/repo.git
Git repository used by yadm.
$YADM_DIR/encrypt
List of globs used for encrypt/decrypt
$YADM_DIR/files.gpg
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/.yadm/encrypt
Add a new pattern to the list of encrypted files
yadm encrypt ; yadm add ~/.yadm/files.gpg ; 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)
https://thelocehiliosan.github.io/yadm/