dotlink

A simple program that can help you link all your dotfiles in place.

Supports multiple presets, in order to avoid linking every file in every machine.

Warning UNIX only (for now)

Features!

• Simple TOML configuration file.
• Ability to have multiple presets for different machines.
• Doesn't overwrite links or files.
• If a link alreay exists, checks if it points to the right file.

A real life use case (simplicity showcase)

I've setup my own dotfiles repo with a dotlink.toml file.

In my case i simply clone the repo and run dotlink inside of it.

$ git clone https://github.com/TheRealLorenz/dotfiles.git
$ cd dotfiles
$ dotlink -p macOS

The program automatically picks up the config file inside the current working directory and links everything!

How does it work?

dotlink relies on a config file, named dotlink.toml.

In the config file you can specify multiple presets, where every presets is a vector for entries.

Presets are top level keys of the config file.

There are two types of entries:

• Simple entries:

[[preset_name]]
name = 'foo'                  # File name
to = '/path/to/destination'   # Destination path

• Multiple entries:

[[preset_name]]
names = [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ] # Multiple file names
to = '/path/to/destination/'    # Destination path

The program than simply symlinks every file specified by name or names to the corresponding to.

Presets example

[[linux-wayland]]
names = [
  'sway',
  'sov',
  'zsh',
  'nushell',
  'waybar'
]
to = '~/.config'

[[linux-wayland]]
name = 'rc.zsh'
to = '~/.zshrc'

[[linux-wayland]]
name = 'tmux.conf'
to = '~/.tmux.conf'

[[linux-xorg]]
names = [
  'i3',
  'polybar',
  'zsh',
  'nushell'
]
to = '~/.config'

[[linux-xorg]]
name = 'rc.zsh'
to = '~/.zshrc' 

[[linux-xorg]]
name = 'tmux.conf'
to = '~/.tmux.conf' 

[[server]]
name = 'tmux.conf'
to = '~/.tmux.conf'

[[macOS]]
name = 'zsh'
to = '~/.config'

[[macOS]]
name = 'rc.zsh'
to = '~/.zshrc'

[[macOS]]
name = 'tmux.conf'
to = '~/.tmux.conf'

[[macOS]]
name = 'nushell'
to = '~/Application Support'

The example above defines 4 presets: linux-wayland, linux-xorg, server, macOS.

Usage

Running dotlink -h will show the help message

Usage: dotlink [OPTIONS] [PATH]

Arguments:
  [PATH]  

Options:
  -p, --preset <PRESET>  Which preset to use [default: default]
  -l, --list-presets     
  -F, --file <FILE>      Custom config file location
      --dry-run          
  -h, --help             Print help

PATH represents the path to the dotfiles. Defaults to the current working directory.

Installing

Clone the repository

$ git clone https://github.com/TheRealLorenz/dotlink

Install with Cargo

$ cargo install --path dotlink

Planned features

• Manage linked files.
• Force linking.
• Windows support.
• Publish to crates.io.