Dotfile management made easy
============================

``dotfiles`` is a tool to make managing your dotfile symlinks in ``$HOME``
easy, allowing you to keep all your dotfiles in a single directory.

Hosting is left to you. Yes, I've seen `<http://dotfiles.org>`_ but I don't
like that model. If you're advanced enough to need dotfile management, then
you probably already know how you want to host them. Using whatever VCS you
prefer, or even rsync, you can easily distribute your dotfiles repository
across multiple hosts.

Interface
---------

``-a, --add <file...>``
    Add dotfile(s) to the repository.

``-c, --check``
    Check for missing or unmanged dotfiles.

``-l, --list``
    List currently managed dotfiles, one per line.

``-r, --remove <file...>``
    Remove dotfile(s) from the repository.

``-s, --sync``
    Update dotfile symlinks. You can overwrite unmanaged files with ``-f`` or
    ``--force``.

Installation
------------

To install dotfiles, simply: ::

    $ pip install dotfiles

Or, if you absolutely must: ::

    $ easy_install dotfiles

But, you really shouldn't do that.

If you want to work with the latest version, you can install it from `the
repository`_::

    $ git clone https://github.com/jbernard/dotfiles
    $ cd dotfiles
    $ ./bin/dotfiles --help

Examples
--------

To install your dotfiles on a new machine, you might do this: ::

  $ git clone https://github.com/me/my-dotfiles Dotfiles
  $ dotfiles --sync

To add '~/.vimrc' to your repository: ::

  $ dotfiles --add ~/.vimrc     (relative paths work also)

To make it available to all your hosts: ::

  $ cd ~/Dotfiles
  $ git add vimrc
  $ git commit -m "Added vimrc, welcome aboard!"
  $ git push

You get the idea. Type ``dotfiles --help`` to see the available options.

Configuration
-------------

You can choose to create a configuration file to store personal
customizations. By default, ``dotfiles`` will look in ``~/.dotfilesrc``. An
example configuration file might look like: ::

  [dotfiles]
  repository = ~/Dotfiles
  ignore = [
      '.git',
      '.gitignore']
  externals = {
      '.bzr.log':     '/dev/null',
      '.uml':         '/tmp'}

Prefixes
--------

Dotfiles are stored in the repository with no prefix by default. So,
``~/.bashrc`` will link to ``~/Dotfiles/bashrc``. If your files already have a
prefix, ``.`` is common, but I've also seen ``_``, then you can specify this
in the configuration file and ``dotfiles`` will do the right thing. An example
configuration in ``~/.dotfilesrc`` might look like: ::

  [dotfiles]
  prefix = .

Externals
---------

You may want to link some dotfiles to external locations. For example, ``bzr``
writes debug information to ``~/.bzr.log`` and there is no easy way to disable
it. For that, I link ``~/.bzr.log`` to ``/dev/null``. Since ``/dev/null`` is
not within the repository, this is called an external. You can have as many of
these as you like. The list of externals is specified in the configuration
file: ::

  [dotfiles]
  externals = {
      '.bzr.log':     '/dev/null',
      '.adobe':       '/tmp',
      '.macromedia':  '/tmp'}

Ignores
-------

If you're using a VCS to manage your repository of dotfiles, you'll want to
tell ``dotfiles`` to ignore VCS-related files. For example, I use ``git``, so
I have the following in my ``~/.dotfilesrc``: ::

  [dotfiles]
  ignore = [
      '.git',
      '.gitignore']

Any file you list in ``ignore`` will be skipped.

License
-------

GPL License. ::

    Copyright (C) 2011  Jon Bernard

    This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
    it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
    the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
    (at your option) any later version.

    This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
    but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
    MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
    GNU General Public License for more details.

    You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
    along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

Contribute
----------

If you'd like to contribute, simply fork `the repository`_, commit your changes
and send a pull request.

.. _`the repository`: https://github.com/jbernard/dotfiles