Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#1

Post by textinterface » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 3:48 PM UTC

Hi! I'm an Ubuntu user and I love exploring all kinds of apps around the internet, specially FOSS. I install new software and update their configs very often, but upgrading my OS and sharing my setup over the two laptops I use is yet not very straightforward to me.

Do you also have to handle that? How do you do it? Is there any good software available out there to make it easy?

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#2

Post by Minor49er » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 3:51 PM UTC

Usually I think of what software I use the most frequently. If there's anything I've missed by the time I need it, it's usually quick to install it right then.

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#3

Post by verdverm » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 3:53 PM UTC

Ansible against localhost is a good choice. Pair this with a git repo that you keep the setup in

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#4

Post by textinterface » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 3:56 PM UTC

verdverm wrote: post #3

Ansible against localhost is a good choice. Pair this with a git repo that you keep the setup in

This seems cool, thanks. I've never played with Ansible but this does feel like a great opportunity to explore it :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#5

Post by softwarebeware » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:02 PM UTC

Do you have a "dotfiles" repository? I know it doesn't cover everything but, as a developer, I can't believe how I ever went years without one.

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#6

Post by georgia_peach » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:08 PM UTC

source control + GNU stow

GNU Stow is a symlink farm manager which takes distinct packages of software and/or data located in separate directories on the filesystem, and makes them appear to be installed in the same place. For example, /usr/local/bin could contain symlinks to files within /usr/local/stow/emacs/bin, /usr/local/stow/perl/bin etc., and likewise recursively for any other subdirectories such as .../share, .../man, and so on.

https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/

http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to...

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#7

Post by doubled112 » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

Ansible in a git repo for the system configuration

Dotfiles with dotbot in a git repo to manage my user configuration.

I've used a few dotfiles managers and this one required the least amount of bootstrapping for me. Needing to install stow or yadm is extra steps I could have the computer do for me

The ansible repo is a submodule in the dotfiles repo because I'm too lazy to pull it separately.

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#8

Post by izietto » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

I use Ubuntu and used to format pretty often (I used to like restarting from scratch every now and then). My approach is keeping the old OS partition and copying data from there when I need them, configurations included. I like this approach because in this way I automatically trash stuff that I added but that I don't need anymore.

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#9

Post by TheYumasi » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:24 PM UTC

I use Nix + home-manager and keep my config in a git repository. Of course, that is less ideal if I need to use a machine on which I can't install Nix.

Re: Ask HN: How do you share your personal setup over different computers?

#10

Post by retrac » Fri, Mar 18, 2022, 4:32 PM UTC

I try to use software that stores its configuration in plain text files. I track those files with Git. That way, if I tweak my editor settings or whatever, a simple commit/push/pull synchronizes it on all the machines. The merge feature is handy when things inevitably get a bit out of sync, too.