Overview

grabrc-client (referred to as grabrc) is a command-line tool for accessing and saving dotfiles from any terminal with Python 2.5+. This is particularly useful for frequent work with virtual machines, Amazon EC2, or new computers, where a new command line environment needs to quickly be brought up-to-date.

grabrc is a thin wrapper around Github, storing dotfiles in a Github repository. After you register your Github user name, create a repository, and store your files, downloading a file is as easy as:

$ grabrc .emacs
[SUCCESS] Downloaded .emacs to /Users/louis/.emacs.

Installation

grabrc is on PyPi and can be installed via easy_install or pip.

via pip

$ pip install grabrc-client

via easy_install

$ easy_install grabrc-client

Setup

Create a repository named grabrc-repo on Github. You're then good to go!

Usage

The first time that you run grabrc, you will be prompted for your Github username. This can be changed at any time in the file ~/.grabrc.

Storing or updating files to Github

Use grabrc push /path/to/file in order to store a file or folder to Github.

Examples

$ grabrc push .vimrc

Downloading a file

To download a file or directory from the repository, run grabrc filename. If it is a directory, prepend the file name with dir: (grabrc dir:.emacs.d). grabrc will automatically backup an existing file if a file or directory with the same name in the target directory.

Examples

$ grabrc .emacs
$ grabrc dir:.emacs.d
$ grabrc .emacs --destdir /tmp

Downloading the repository

You can quickly download the whole repository by running grabrc repo

Options

grabrc --help will give a full list of options.

$ grabrc --help
Usage: 
grabrc OPTION [FILENAME | dir: DIRECTORY | repo] | Download a file from Github
grabrc push OPTION [FILEPATH | DIRPATH]          | Push a file to Github

Examples:
`grabrc .emacs`  -- Download .emacs from Github.
`grabrc dir:.emacs.d --outfile .irssiconfig` - Download the .emacs.d directory from Github.
`grabrc repo --destdir=/tmp/` -- Download and untar the repository in /tmp/.
`grabrc push /home/user/.vimrc` -- Save ~/.vimrc to Github, overwriting the existing .vimrc.


Options:
--version             show program's version number and exit
-h, --help            show this help message and exit

Download: All (files, directories, repositories):
-o NAME, -O NAME, --name=NAME, --outfile=NAME
Rename the downloaded item to NAME.
-d DIR, --destdir=DIR
Place the downloaded item in DIR.
Default: The current directory.
--no-backup         If the file already exists, don't make a backup.
Default: False. If the item already exists, it will be
backed up.

Download: Files:
-a, --append        If file already exists, append to existing file.
Default: Back up existing file
-r, --replace       If the file already exists, replace it
-p, --print         Print the file to the console instead of saving it.

Download: Repositories:
-k, --keep-tar      Download the repository as a tar.gz file.
Default: Untar the repository.
-z, --keep-zip      Download the repository as a .zip.

Server

grabrc runs a server, a thin wrapper around Github. Its source code can be found here.