dotfiles

A backup of my custom configuration files together with scripts for their maintenance.

Scripts

dotfiles

dotfiles script is responsible for restoring and backing up custom configuration files and directories listed under its FILES array. Items in FILES array are paths. If a path starts with HOME, it refers to the ${HOME} directory at a user's side and to the HOME directory that lies in the same directory as the script at the script's side.

To backup the dot files, type

./dotfiles backup

To restore them back, type

./dotfiles restore

To get the help, type

./dotfiles --help

Additionally, backup and restore accepts also arguments specifying particular files. An argument is either a path as described above or an index to the FILES array. Examples:

• ./dotfiles backup 0 HOME/.bashrc backups ~/.bashrc and ${FILES[0]}
• ./dotfiles restore 1 restores ${FILES[1]}

Investigating the help

When you type ./dotfiles --help, you may notice something like this

Restore or backup dot files or directories.

Usage: dotfiles OPTIONS {restore,backup} [FILES]

where OPTIONS are

  -b, --backup
      make a backup of old files or directories when restoring; a name
      of a backup has a form <old file name>.XXXXX.bak, where XXXXX is
      generated by `mktemp -u`; a backup is placed in the same
      directory as its original;

  -d, --dry-run
      print what will be done without taking any action;

  -h, -?, --help
      print this help and exit;

  -q, --quite
      restore or backup files or directories quitely;

`dotfiles restore` restores files or directories from the script
directory, `dotfiles backup` backup files or directories to the script
directory.

FILES can further specify which files or directories should be restored
or backed up. A file or directory can be specified both as an index to
the FILES array (see the list of files below) or a path starting with
`HOME`, which denotes home directory.

The list of files or directories that will be restored or backed up is:

  0: /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects/dotfiles/HOME/.bashrc.d <-> /home/jdoe/.bashrc.d

Notice the last line. Suppose that your user name is jdoe and your home directory is then /home/jdoe. Suppose that you have dotfiles cloned in /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects directory and you are cded in it so if you type echo ${PWD} you will see /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects/dotfiles. Suppose the path to dotfiles script is /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects/dotfiles/dotfiles.

Now what the last line means. In a case you type ./dotfiles backup, file /home/jdoe/.bashrc.d is copied to /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects/dotfiles/HOME/.bashrc.d location. Conversely, if you type ./dotfiles restore, /home/jdoe/jdoes_projects/dotfiles/HOME/.bashrc.d is copied to /home/jdoe/.bashrc.d location.