9 ms·

Chezmoi: manage your dotfiles securely across multiple machines

113 points by twp 8y ago

twp 8y ago
Author here. Feel free to ask any questions.
- maccio92 8y ago
  how's your day going?
- earthscienceman 8y ago
  Congrats on the v1.0 release! Êtes-vous Français?
kiesel 8y ago
I am a (happy) user of homeshick (https://github.com/andsens/homeshick https://github.com/andsens/homeshick), but this project really seems to top it by providing the only feature that I've missed until now: - use the same source file with different results for different machines (eg. .gitconfig for home and office machines) - option to store secrets in a credentials database and extract them from there (because you wouldn't want to store them in a git repo - even if it's a private one) I'll definitively give it a try! (EDIT: formatting)
- explainplease 8y ago
  Homeshick is indeed great, been using it for years. Every time I've compared it to other solutions, it always comes out on top feature-wise. The other solutions are always missing something, like tracking either files and/or entire directories. Tracking whole directories is very important for e.g. storing an entire ~/.emacs.d in git, and tracking individual files is nice so I can just `homeshick track main ~/.config/some-config-file` without tracking all of ~/.config. > - use the same source file with different results for different machines (eg. .gitconfig for home and office machines) I do that by storing each machine's copy with its hostname as a suffix and symlinking it into place on each machine. e.g. ~/.config/anacrontab.systemA gets symlinked to ~/.config/anacrontab on systemA, and the repo contains both ~/.config/anacrontab.systemA and ~/.config/anacrontab.systemB. I can even modify one machine's file from the other machine, and it will be updated on the next push/pull. But having integrated support for this would be nice.
RagingCactus 8y ago
Is there a way to manage different "categories" of systems with chezmoi? For example, a "linux-server" category would contain an essential set of dotfiles, but not all the window manager related stuff from my linux laptop. Looking at the documentation, the only way to do this would be hostname-based templating, but that seems cumbersome as you would have to change every single template to add the new hostname to the section in question.
- twp 8y ago
  Yes, you can define your own template variables in the config file, for example if you include: data: category: "linux-server" in your .config/chezmoi/chezmoi.yaml file, you can then use it in your templates and a .chezmoiignore file (which is also treated as a template). A .chezmoiignore file could look like: {{ if eq .category "linux-server" -}} .windowmanager.conf {{ end -}} I use this technique myself: https://github.com/twpayne/dotfiles/blob/master/.chezmoiignore https://github.com/twpayne/dotfiles/blob/master/.chezmoiigno...
  - RagingCactus 8y ago
    Thanks! Just defining it as a config variable is far too obvious in hindsight, I don't know why it didn't cross my mind. I'll definitely try it out!
fock 8y ago
I'm just using a python script and a local copy of some mustache(?) template-library (even using a .tpml extension). Considering flexibility: I guess the configurability of this is offset by having to know Go to extend this (compared to whichever scripting language you are familiar with), Python/Perl probably are available everywhere as well (at least if you don't care for containers). Still it's nice to see some useful approach shown off, instead of all-the-same useless fuss about different branches (which is basically every blog post about dotfile management I found on Google).
elnappo 8y ago
I'm using Ansible for that. It has all the promoted features and more. It's made for that, as a configuration management system. https://github.com/elnappo/dotfiles https://github.com/elnappo/dotfiles
kjullien 8y ago
I feel so dumb, I just started coding a project to sync my configuration files across multiple machines. I even tried a quick "configuration synchronise" search on Github but came up with nothing. Oh well.
- ajford 8y ago
  Meh, it's a good practice project even if you don't end up using it in the long run. I strongly recommend you follow through with it. Practical real-world problems, like dot-file management and syncing, can lead you to some fun solutions. I ended up writing my own in Bash about 7 years ago as a way to bring my Bash skills up to snuff. Was well worth it, even if there are good solutions out there. Probably could use some shell hardening and other maintenance, but it works well enough for my use.
sevensor 8y ago
Although I regularly work on a number of different Linux machines, I've never felt the need for something like this and I suspect mine is not the target use case. But clearly synchronizing dotfiles is a thing people want. So, why? Who is this for? What problem does it solve for you?
- rhinoceraptor 8y ago
  I use GNU Stow, it's really nice to clone my dotfiles repo, and run an install script to do the symlinks, and then my Vim, ZSH, tmux, git, etc. are all set up the way I like.
  - sevensor 8y ago
    OK, but why? Do you do this frequently? I feel like there's a hidden assumption here that I'm just not getting. Do you have a whole ton of machines you log into on a regular basis? Where it's deeply unproductive / impossible to use the default configuration? What gives rise to this state of affairs?
    - rhinoceraptor 8y ago
      I'm very comfortable with my keybindings for a lot of things, particularly the way I have vim and tmux set up to work nicely together. I also have a fairly extensive zsh config using vi mode and some alternate key bindings. If I remote in to a stock machine, I can get by though. I have about 7 different machines/VMs/VPSes/partitions I use semi-regularly, so it's nice to have the exact same setup I use everywhere. I also don't want to have to re-create my setup every time because I won't remember all the tweaks I set up months or years ago. I'm not the kind of user who constantly tweaks their configs, I've been using basically the same configs for about three years.
      - sevensor 8y ago
        Huh, I have about the same number. I suppose this is a matter of personal taste. Thanks for addressing my curiosity!
simplecomplex 8y ago
These suggestions seem like a lot of work. My home folder is a Git repo and it works great. No complicated setup. Easy to sync remotely and track changes.
- neilsimp1 8y ago
  I cam across this solution not very long ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11070797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11070797. The advantage to Chezmoi (or GNU Stow) is that it can handle things outside of your home directory too (if I understand correctly).
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
ximeng 8y ago
This is a neat git setup for managing dot files: https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-store-dotfiles-git-bare-repo/ https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-sto...
- vukk 8y ago
  a slightly bitrotted tool for this https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh
CGamesPlay 8y ago
I looked into this and tried porting my dot files over because I was very interested in the templating feature. However, I don't think I'm going to continue because the experience of maintaining these dot files is substantially worse than my current solution. I would be interested in continuing if this feature existed: I want a command that inspects every file and directory monitored by chezmoi in the target state and updates it in the source state. Specifically: - New files in tracked directories should be listed with the ability to import them individually (presently you can only do `chezmoi add -r` and deal with the consequences). - Adding files should respect the `chezmoiignore` file (I never want `chezmoi add -r ~/.config/fish` to import my `fish_history` file).
- twp 8y ago
  Thanks for the suggestions, I'll implement them. In the short term, to chose files individually you can do: find ~/.config -type f > file-list $EDITOR file-list # remove the ones you don't want imported xargs chezmoi add <file-list EDIT: Issues created: https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/123 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/123 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/124 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/124
_zachs 8y ago
I think this is pretty sweet, but if I were deciding between learning this and Ansible I would choose Ansible
- guitarbill 8y ago
  I did this for a while, but then went with a git approach. The problem with dotfiles in Ansible is that you have to write different scripts for different OS', you have to keep testing them e.g. in case a package name has changed. And for me personally, mostly I'm bootstrapping a new version of an OS after a clean re-install, which again can be hard to test (macOS). So for me, Ansible was way too much hassle. YMMV
gilesvangruisen 8y ago
I use `rcm` from thoughtbot: https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm
Ugohcet 8y ago
For those who prefer not to learn another configuration management system just for dotfiles but already know salt, here is a masterless salt template for dotfiles: https://github.com/stiletto/salt-dotfiles-template https://github.com/stiletto/salt-dotfiles-template
colemickens 8y ago
stow + git-crypt works well, also. I just added git-crypt two days ago for my very few encrypted dotfiles (cachix key, gist token, etc). Though I understand the desire for it, in reality I've never needed templating for dotfiles, there's always been some other indirection mechanism that was better suited anyway. `git clone .`, `git-crypt unlock`, `stow --no-folding`, done.
joseph8th 8y ago
Chezmoi looks very cool. I'll definitely give it a try. Like some of the other commenters here, I use git branches for different setups, though in practice there's only really the one. I also wrote a shell script (Dotty) [1] to 'collect' and 'deploy' dotfiles mixed freely with shell commands. Mixing shell scripting in lets me do things like remove unwanted files from my .emacs.d/ after collection, preserving nested directory structures, or any other pre- or post-collect/deploy arbitrary actions. [1] https://github.com/joseph8th/dotfiles https://github.com/joseph8th/dotfiles

113 points by twp 8y ago

twp 8y ago

Author here. Feel free to ask any questions.

maccio92 8y ago
how's your day going?
earthscienceman 8y ago
Congrats on the v1.0 release! Êtes-vous Français?

kiesel 8y ago

I am a (happy) user of homeshick (https://github.com/andsens/homeshick https://github.com/andsens/homeshick), but this project really seems to top it by providing the only feature that I've missed until now: - use the same source file with different results for different machines (eg. .gitconfig for home and office machines) - option to store secrets in a credentials database and extract them from there (because you wouldn't want to store them in a git repo - even if it's a private one) I'll definitively give it a try! (EDIT: formatting)

explainplease 8y ago
Homeshick is indeed great, been using it for years. Every time I've compared it to other solutions, it always comes out on top feature-wise. The other solutions are always missing something, like tracking either files and/or entire directories. Tracking whole directories is very important for e.g. storing an entire ~/.emacs.d in git, and tracking individual files is nice so I can just `homeshick track main ~/.config/some-config-file` without tracking all of ~/.config. > - use the same source file with different results for different machines (eg. .gitconfig for home and office machines) I do that by storing each machine's copy with its hostname as a suffix and symlinking it into place on each machine. e.g. ~/.config/anacrontab.systemA gets symlinked to ~/.config/anacrontab on systemA, and the repo contains both ~/.config/anacrontab.systemA and ~/.config/anacrontab.systemB. I can even modify one machine's file from the other machine, and it will be updated on the next push/pull. But having integrated support for this would be nice.

RagingCactus 8y ago

Is there a way to manage different "categories" of systems with chezmoi? For example, a "linux-server" category would contain an essential set of dotfiles, but not all the window manager related stuff from my linux laptop. Looking at the documentation, the only way to do this would be hostname-based templating, but that seems cumbersome as you would have to change every single template to add the new hostname to the section in question.

twp 8y ago
Yes, you can define your own template variables in the config file, for example if you include: data: category: "linux-server" in your .config/chezmoi/chezmoi.yaml file, you can then use it in your templates and a .chezmoiignore file (which is also treated as a template). A .chezmoiignore file could look like: {{ if eq .category "linux-server" -}} .windowmanager.conf {{ end -}} I use this technique myself: https://github.com/twpayne/dotfiles/blob/master/.chezmoiignore https://github.com/twpayne/dotfiles/blob/master/.chezmoiigno...
- RagingCactus 8y ago
  Thanks! Just defining it as a config variable is far too obvious in hindsight, I don't know why it didn't cross my mind. I'll definitely try it out!

fock 8y ago

I'm just using a python script and a local copy of some mustache(?) template-library (even using a .tpml extension). Considering flexibility: I guess the configurability of this is offset by having to know Go to extend this (compared to whichever scripting language you are familiar with), Python/Perl probably are available everywhere as well (at least if you don't care for containers). Still it's nice to see some useful approach shown off, instead of all-the-same useless fuss about different branches (which is basically every blog post about dotfile management I found on Google).

elnappo 8y ago

I'm using Ansible for that. It has all the promoted features and more. It's made for that, as a configuration management system. https://github.com/elnappo/dotfiles https://github.com/elnappo/dotfiles

kjullien 8y ago

I feel so dumb, I just started coding a project to sync my configuration files across multiple machines. I even tried a quick "configuration synchronise" search on Github but came up with nothing. Oh well.

ajford 8y ago
Meh, it's a good practice project even if you don't end up using it in the long run. I strongly recommend you follow through with it. Practical real-world problems, like dot-file management and syncing, can lead you to some fun solutions. I ended up writing my own in Bash about 7 years ago as a way to bring my Bash skills up to snuff. Was well worth it, even if there are good solutions out there. Probably could use some shell hardening and other maintenance, but it works well enough for my use.

sevensor 8y ago

Although I regularly work on a number of different Linux machines, I've never felt the need for something like this and I suspect mine is not the target use case. But clearly synchronizing dotfiles is a thing people want. So, why? Who is this for? What problem does it solve for you?

rhinoceraptor 8y ago
I use GNU Stow, it's really nice to clone my dotfiles repo, and run an install script to do the symlinks, and then my Vim, ZSH, tmux, git, etc. are all set up the way I like.
- sevensor 8y ago
  OK, but why? Do you do this frequently? I feel like there's a hidden assumption here that I'm just not getting. Do you have a whole ton of machines you log into on a regular basis? Where it's deeply unproductive / impossible to use the default configuration? What gives rise to this state of affairs?
  - rhinoceraptor 8y ago
    I'm very comfortable with my keybindings for a lot of things, particularly the way I have vim and tmux set up to work nicely together. I also have a fairly extensive zsh config using vi mode and some alternate key bindings. If I remote in to a stock machine, I can get by though. I have about 7 different machines/VMs/VPSes/partitions I use semi-regularly, so it's nice to have the exact same setup I use everywhere. I also don't want to have to re-create my setup every time because I won't remember all the tweaks I set up months or years ago. I'm not the kind of user who constantly tweaks their configs, I've been using basically the same configs for about three years.
    - sevensor 8y ago
      Huh, I have about the same number. I suppose this is a matter of personal taste. Thanks for addressing my curiosity!

simplecomplex 8y ago

These suggestions seem like a lot of work. My home folder is a Git repo and it works great. No complicated setup. Easy to sync remotely and track changes.

neilsimp1 8y ago
I cam across this solution not very long ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11070797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11070797. The advantage to Chezmoi (or GNU Stow) is that it can handle things outside of your home directory too (if I understand correctly).
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]

ximeng 8y ago

This is a neat git setup for managing dot files: https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-store-dotfiles-git-bare-repo/ https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-sto...

vukk 8y ago
a slightly bitrotted tool for this https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh

CGamesPlay 8y ago

I looked into this and tried porting my dot files over because I was very interested in the templating feature. However, I don't think I'm going to continue because the experience of maintaining these dot files is substantially worse than my current solution. I would be interested in continuing if this feature existed: I want a command that inspects every file and directory monitored by chezmoi in the target state and updates it in the source state. Specifically: - New files in tracked directories should be listed with the ability to import them individually (presently you can only do `chezmoi add -r` and deal with the consequences). - Adding files should respect the `chezmoiignore` file (I never want `chezmoi add -r ~/.config/fish` to import my `fish_history` file).

twp 8y ago
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll implement them. In the short term, to chose files individually you can do: find ~/.config -type f > file-list $EDITOR file-list # remove the ones you don't want imported xargs chezmoi add <file-list EDIT: Issues created: https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/123 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/123 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/124 https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/issues/124

_zachs 8y ago

I think this is pretty sweet, but if I were deciding between learning this and Ansible I would choose Ansible

guitarbill 8y ago
I did this for a while, but then went with a git approach. The problem with dotfiles in Ansible is that you have to write different scripts for different OS', you have to keep testing them e.g. in case a package name has changed. And for me personally, mostly I'm bootstrapping a new version of an OS after a clean re-install, which again can be hard to test (macOS). So for me, Ansible was way too much hassle. YMMV

gilesvangruisen 8y ago

I use `rcm` from thoughtbot: https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm

Ugohcet 8y ago

For those who prefer not to learn another configuration management system just for dotfiles but already know salt, here is a masterless salt template for dotfiles: https://github.com/stiletto/salt-dotfiles-template https://github.com/stiletto/salt-dotfiles-template

colemickens 8y ago

stow + git-crypt works well, also. I just added git-crypt two days ago for my very few encrypted dotfiles (cachix key, gist token, etc). Though I understand the desire for it, in reality I've never needed templating for dotfiles, there's always been some other indirection mechanism that was better suited anyway. `git clone .`, `git-crypt unlock`, `stow --no-folding`, done.

joseph8th 8y ago

Chezmoi looks very cool. I'll definitely give it a try. Like some of the other commenters here, I use git branches for different setups, though in practice there's only really the one. I also wrote a shell script (Dotty) [1] to 'collect' and 'deploy' dotfiles mixed freely with shell commands. Mixing shell scripting in lets me do things like remove unwanted files from my .emacs.d/ after collection, preserving nested directory structures, or any other pre- or post-collect/deploy arbitrary actions. [1] https://github.com/joseph8th/dotfiles https://github.com/joseph8th/dotfiles