deezconfigs

Manage deez config files.

[!CAUTION]

Work In Progress.

Same idea as GNU Stow or chezmoi, but way simpler, requiring less neuron activation to operate.

Yet Another Config Manager

I very rarely edit my configuration files. So when I do, I never quite remember how the config manager worked. I wanted a tool so easy that taking 3s to glance at the --help would be enough to remember how to update the configs repo (deez rsync), and mirror the changes to my other environments (deez sync).

That's also why deezconfigs does very little. Instead of making me remberer deez commands, it delegates to tools I use way more often. I much rather nvim or git commit my config files, because those commands are burnt into my muscle memory.

Roadmap

• CLI arguments parsing.
• Basic sync.
• Protect $HOME with a .deez file.
• Add --verbose mode (use -V for version).
• Use Git remote as sync root.
• Smart root finder (looks in parents)
• Basic rsync.
• Basic link.
• Likely list (with up-to-date status for each file).
• Maybe diff (difference between source and target).
• Proper verbose --help section.
• Make argument parsing more flexible (not very nice right now).
• Think about commands.
• Think about templating.

Usage

deez will copy any file it finds under the root to a matching file in $HOME.

• In sync mode, the files are copied and the target files overridden.
• rsync is the reverse of sync, copying from $HOME to root.
• In link mode, symlinks are created to the files in the root.

No special heuristics are planned outside of templates (find a less intimidating name for that) and variables/secrets.

deez requires a .deez file in the config root (or it will ask for confirmation), to prevent yourself from ruining the $HOME directory if ran on the wrong root.

Maybe add deez diff, that diffs the two versions (using the diff executable, or settable through an env variable), nothing fancy or homemade. Maybe there's a crate for this?

$ tree
.
├── .config
│   ├── fish
│   │   └── config.fish
│   ├── ghostty
│   │   ├── config
│   │   └── ssh.txt
│   └── nvim
│       └── init.vim
├── .deez
├── .gitconfig
└── .tmux.conf

$ deez --help
deez sync|rsync|link [<root>]

$ deez sync
Copies the files to the $HOME directory.
Also creates any missing directories.

$ deez sync git://git@github.com:qrichert/configs.git
Sync directly from Git remote.

$ deez link
Creates symlinks to the files in $HOME.
Also creates any missing directories.

$ deez sync somedir
Will treat `somedir` as the root instead of using `cwd`.

• Respects .ignore and .gitignore files.

• list starts file paths with ./, And colors out-of-date files in red (respecting NO_COLOR).

• Smart root finding will be used when 1) no root was explicitly supplied, and 2) the current working directory (default roor) is not a config root (no .deez file). In this case, deezconfigs will look into parent dirs for a .deez file. If one is found, use it as root instead of warning "this is not a deez root".

Tips

Do I need to use Git?

Not at all. deezconfigs is designed to integrate nicely with Git, but Git is absolutely not a requirement.

Ignore some files

By default, deezconfigs ignores the .git directory at the root, the .ignore and/or .gitignore file at the root (but not elsewhere, although it respects them everywhere), and all .deez files, wherever they are (enabling multi-root repos).

If you want to ignore more files than this, add them to your root .gitignore. Git will let you version the files regardless, just git add -f them.

This, in my mind, strikes a nice balance between configurability and simplicity. You can ignore whatever you want, without squeezing too many heuristics into deezconfigs. It's a Git thing, nothing new to learn.

Copying some files, while linking others

Use mutliple roots. You can have multiple roots (subdirectories) in one repo. Use sync in one, and link in the other.

I you need anything more advanced than that, deezconfigs is likely not the right tool for you.

Templating (idea/TODO)

Sometimes you don't want to replace the whole config file, just a part of it. For example, in config.fish you may have generic fish config, but you also want a variable per-machine section.

With deez you can achieve this by creating a template section in the target config file (won't work in link mode).

# <%deez-template%>

This section will be overridden/updated by the `deez` config file.

# </%deez-template%>

Outside of the template won't be touched.

Hooks (idea/TODO)

Enable some sort of pre-sync and post-sync hooks. Those would be defined in the .deez file. The hooks would be passed to sh as:

cd <root>; /bin/sh -c "<the hook content>"

The exact format has to be determined. Probably Yaml, like:

hooks:
  post-sync:
    - ./do-something.bash
    - sed -i s/foo/bar/g config