Ability to use XDG_CONFIG_HOME path for ZK's config and templates

[megalithic]

Hey there @mickael-menu!

I was recently alerted to this project by @evantravers and am super excited to dive in!

One thing I've been trying to do with my dotfiles and my system setup in general, is to move everything config-wise to XDG_CONFIG_HOME (~/.config/). I see there looks to be some flexibility for path in zk.go where you're joining that given path with a fixed .zk dir for those config items. I'm a little bit confused on what the .zk/ path is relative to.

Any thoughts around this as an option?

Thanks again for such a wonderful tool!

[mickael-menu]

Hi Seth, welcome!

zk is working a bit like Git, in that its config is local to a particular notebook. The .zk folder is located at the root directory of a notebook. You can find more info about it here.

But I think some of zk's settings would definitely make sense in a global config, such as command aliases and templates. XDG_CONFIG_HOME seems a perfect fit for this! I think this could be implemented by reading the global config, then merging the local one when opening the current notebook.

[megalithic]

Ahh, that makes more sense. I was trying to get a sense of how/what was acting as the root "key" for the config and the notebooks.

I'm looking at ways to make link-following easier; since this is tool agnostic for editing/etc; and you seem to be a (n)vim user; do you recommend something like vim-wiki/vimwiki for handling the link expansion and creation?

Basically, I think I'm looking to utilize zk for management of zettels, as well as it's journaling feature for more long-form day-to-day work notes.

Ever considered doing a live-stream or a youtube video showing some of your real-world usages? 🙏

[mickael-menu]

I spawned a new discussion for Vim: https://github.com/mickael-menu/zk/discussions/11

Ever considered doing a live-stream or a youtube video showing some of your real-world usages? 🙏

No but why not! I don't think my setup is very special, but it could help showcase some of zk's coolest features better than the animated SVGs in Getting started.

[evantravers]

I'm going to 👍 this idea… mostly because I sync my wiki back and forth on dropbox… and I can't figure out how to tell the second computer to use ~/Dropbox/wiki as it's primary notebook. On the first computer, I just ran zk init, and everything was fine, but I can't figure out how to point zk at the folder on the second… I think a config file would be good.

[mickael-menu]

@evantravers I started working on the global config, but I'm not sure this is going to solve your problem.

A zk notebook is really like a Git repository, and zk init is similar to git init: it creates a .zk folder in the current directory. As long as the .zk folder is also synchronized with Dropbox, you should not need to run zk init on the other computer.

There is no notion of "global notebook" with zk, the shell needs to be inside a notebook directory to run zk commands.

I can understand the appeal of running zk commands from anywhere with a global notebook, but I'm afraid this would make it more complicated to work with several notebooks.

[mickael-menu]

I implemented it in this PR: https://github.com/mickael-menu/zk/pull/12

Here's a macOS build, I will wait for your feedback before merging the PR. And I'm looking forward to any cool aliases you may add to your dotfiles repos! ;)

[mickael-menu]

@evantravers @megalithic I've given more thought to the global notebook issue and came up with this potential solution: https://github.com/mickael-menu/zk/issues/13

[megalithic]

Your solution from #13 makes complete sense and seems like the direction to go.

[evantravers]

I love this. I honestly think that this “git-like” approach is a perfect fit for both vim and unix-y atomic notes in general. Very excited to follow along.

…

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 17, 2021, at 8:46 AM, Seth Messer ***@***.***> wrote:  Your solution from #13 makes complete sense and seems like the direction to go. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[mickael-menu]

Here's an updated macOS build supporting the ZK_NOTEBOOK_DIR env variable per #14. Thanks again for your feedback, I think it's making zk more enjoyable to use!

[evantravers]

I pulled and updated it today to play with it… this is really fun. Thanks Mickaël!

…

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 18, 2021, at 1:53 PM, Mickaël Menu ***@***.***> wrote:  Here's an updated macOS build supporting the ZK_NOTEBOOK_DIR env variable per #14. Thanks again for your feedback, I think it's making zk more enjoyable to use! — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.

[megalithic]

@mickael-menu quick question around global config/templates (https://github.com/mickael-menu/zk/blob/main/docs/config.md#global-configuration-file)..

there still seems to be a requirement that a config.toml exist in your notebook's directory (even the notebook defined in the ZK_NOTEBOOK_DIR; is this expected behaviour?

thanks!

[mickael-menu]

Not really, it's probably just a leftover from the previous behavior. I guess checking the presence of the .zk marker should be enough. Thanks for spotting that 👍