dot-back

Table of Contents

• About
• Requirements
• Installation
• FAQ

About

Dot-back is a shell script that copies a user's dot-files to a local, version-controlled directory. This project ensures a known working copy of a dot file matched from a preconfigured list can be kept safe.

I created this project to ensure that I could always roll back to the known-good version whenever I sullied a file. Once a User's home directory ~ has dot . files present, dot-back.sh dynamically copies files after detecting the current Operating System type and creates a cron job to execute the script at a set frequency.

Requirements

Dot-back has been tested with macOS (11.0.x) and Ubuntu (20.04.x LTS).

The script will copy [✔️] and omit [❌] the following directories and files:

File/Directory	Ubuntu	MacOS
📄 ~/.bashrc	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.bash_history	❌	❌
📄 ~/.bash_logout	❌	❌
📄 ~/.bash_profile	✔️	✔️
📁 ~/.config/coc	✔️	✔️
📁 ~/.config/nvim	✔️	✔️
📁 ~/.config/powerline	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.config/starship.toml	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.fzf.bash	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.fzf.zsh	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.NerdTree*	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.ssh*	❌	❌
📄 ~/.tmux*	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.tmux*	✔️	✔️
📁 ~/.vim	✔️	❌
📄 ~/.zshrc	✔️	✔️
📄 ~/.zcompdump*	❌	❌
📄 ~/.zsh_history	❌	❌

⁜ Additional files and directories are excluded in the project's .gitignore

⁜⁜ Symlinks with matching filenames are ignored [Ubuntu only]

Installation

1. Fork this project
2. In the command line, cd to the project folder
3. Execute the script:

   $SHELL ./dot-back.sh

   • MacOS: If prompted in Terminal, click [ OK ] to allow access.
4. Confirm the following:
   • The cron job was added:

     crontab -l

   • The .CronSetupDone file was created:

     ls ./cron

FAQ

How can I remove the cron job

Use crontab -r to delete all user created crontabs, man crontab for more information.

How do I edit the frequency of dot-back

Edit L23 in ./cron/cron-setup.sh with your preferred frequency.

Once updated, delete ./cron/.CronSetupDone and run ./dot-back.sh.