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Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

chezmoi.io

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Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#11

Post by gregwebs »

I started using this recently and it’s working pretty well. It’s just a porcelain around having a git repo for your home directory files (there’s one level of indirection though where files are copied to/from the repo and your actual home dir).

Previously I used symlinks to dotfiles in Dropbox but I find git a better match for dotfiles.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#12

Post by konart »

Gave it a try a few months ago and realized I can't stomach its approach of copying everything into its own folder and editing your configs over there.

I'd rather tell the tool to watch for changes in my local files. Yes, most of them are in .config, so no big change, but still...

Matter of habbit I guess.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#13

Post by zufallsheld »

hulitu wrote: post #9
bhaak wrote: post #3

Somewhat odd to claim managing dotfiles securely and then tell people to execute 350 lines of shell script to install it.

Security is in the eyes of the beholder. I was trying to find the actual program. All i found was only instructions how to install it.

On the homepage you can find a link to the github-repo in the top right corner.

https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi/

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#14

Post by PurpleRamen »

I just use a boring python-script for this job, which links everything from my repo to the correct location. This has the benefit that I can also add some personal tweak to some configs, like linking my userchrome from Firefox to my profile.

Similar solution for packages and other settings, just a bunch of shell script doing stuff. I tried using Ansible in the past, but maintaining a rarely used tool with many updates was too much of a hassle. At the end, the simple solution is the best one, for me.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#15

Post by gbrindisi »

peperunas wrote: post #10

I use Nix [1] (package manager) to handle my configurations over different systems. There is a somewhat steep learning curve, but it is perfect for my use-cases. [1]: https://nixos.org

yes same, took me too much time to reap the benefits of nix and home-manager but provisioning the new laptop from my configs was such a breeze

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#17

Post by capableweb »

peperunas wrote: post #10

I use Nix [1] (package manager) to handle my configurations over different systems. There is a somewhat steep learning curve, but it is perfect for my use-cases. [1]: https://nixos.org

Would that work across Linux/macOS/Windows? Thought Nix was generally for Linux, and usable with caveats on macOS, but no Windows support.

Main selling point of Chezmoi seems to be the "multiple diverse machines" part, which would mean multiple OSes and at least Linux/macOS/Windows.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#18

Post by vladvasiliu »

DavideNL wrote: post #16

Hmmz so with Chezmoi you can't edit your files directly... not very convenient. I'd rather use a bare Git repository : - https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles - https://www.ackama.com/what-we-think/the-best-way-to-store-y...

You can edit them directly, you just have to "re-add" them so that chezmoi is aware of the change. Kinda like how you have to git add the files in a basic git repository.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#19

Post by strathos »

gregwebs wrote: post #11

I started using this recently and it’s working pretty well. It’s just a porcelain around having a git repo for your home directory files (there’s one level of indirection though where files are copied to/from the repo and your actual home dir). Previously I used symlinks to dotfiles in Dropbox but I find git a better match for dotfiles.

True, but there's templating with variables and conditionals too. Useful for differentiating between environments, for example work Mac and home WSL2.

Re: Chezmoi – Manage your dotfiles across multiple diverse machines, securely

#20

Post by mxuribe »

cybrox wrote: post #5

I just use Ansible for this purpose. All my work machines are set up using a single, parameterized Ansible playbook.

Oh, if you wouldn't mind sharing, that would be greatly appreciated! For set up of my machine(s), I was going to go the route of using a bash or python script...but when i learned (a high level summary) of ansible, figured that might be a skill that i can leverage for work in the future too. So, I'm trying to play, learn about ansible. (I already have basics of python, so ansible was an add-on for me.) The more that i can learn from examples of others, the better i can learn what are good practices, etc. Thanks!
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