https://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles

Quickly push your dotfiles from your workstation to your servers.
https://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles

Last synced: 2 months ago
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Quickly push your dotfiles from your workstation to your servers.

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles
• Owner: xolox
• Created: 2010-06-25T00:55:51.000Z (almost 15 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2010-12-16T19:29:36.000Z (over 14 years ago)
• Last Synced: 2025-01-02T06:43:13.718Z (4 months ago)
• Homepage: http://peterodding.com/code/sync-dotfiles/
• Size: 90.8 KB
• Stars: 16
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 1
• Open Issues: 0
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

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README

        
# Quickly push your dotfiles from your workstation to your servers

I've long used a shell script to quickly push my dotfiles (configuration files for UNIX programs) from my workstation to the servers that I manage. The Python script [sync-dotfiles](http://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles/blob/master/sync-dotfiles) is the latest incarnation of that shell script and it adds one feature to the mix. When I push my dotfiles certain files are rewritten in transit so that:

  1. All interactive command prompts on a single machine use the same color.

  2. Every machine uses a unique color for interactive command prompts.

In my case the dotfiles for the [Z shell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_shell), the [Bash shell](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bash_%28Unix_shell%29) and the [Python](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_%28programming_language%29), [Lua](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_%28programming_language%29) and [SQLite](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQLite) [interactive prompts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Read-eval-print_loop) are rewritten because I've added prompt definitions with [ANSI escape sequences](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code) to the relevant configuration files.

## Screenshots

Now whenever I want to be absolutely sure I'm not executing a destructive command in the wrong context (terminal window) I only have to look at the prompt colors to know where I am. Over time this association has grown so strong that I rarely lose track of my context nowadays. Here's a screenshot of my local terminal with a blue prompt:

![Local terminal with prompt highlighted in blue](http://peterodding.com/code/sync-dotfiles/local.png)

And here's the equivalent session on one of my servers which uses a red prompt:

![Remote terminal with prompt highlighted in red](http://peterodding.com/code/sync-dotfiles/remote.png)

## Usage

To use this script you'll need to create a `~/.sync-dotfiles.conf` file. Start with a line `files:` and add the names of your dotfiles on the lines below that. Directories are also allowed and will be included recursively. Then add the line `hosts:` and below that line list your hosts (SSH aliases), each followed by a colon and then one of the supported color names. Make sure to also add the host `local` with the color you've used in the dotfiles on your local machine (so the script knows which ANSI escape sequences to rewrite). As an example here are my [~/.sync-dotfiles.conf](http://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles/blob/master/.sync-dotfiles.conf) and [~/.sqliterc](http://github.com/xolox/sync-dotfiles/blob/master/.sqliterc) files:

    $ cat ~/.sync-dotfiles.conf

    files:

      .bashrc

      .ctags

      .gitconfig

      .inputrc

      .profile

      .pythonrc

      .screenrc

      .shell_aliases

      .shell_prompt

      .sqliterc

      .vim

      .vimrc

      .zshrc

    exclude:

      .vim/.netrwhist

      .vim/.VimballRecord

      .vim/GetLatest

      .vim/sessions

      .vim/tags

    hosts:

      local: blue

      server1: red

      server2: green

      server3: magenta

    $ cat ~/.sqliterc

    .prompt "[0;34m> [0m" "[0;34m>> [0m"

As you can see above I synchronize my `~/.vim` directory using the `sync-dotfiles` script. This directory contains some unwanted (large) files which I've excluded using an `exclude:` section. Given the above configuration, this is the output of the `sync-dotfiles` script:

    $ sync-dotfiles

    Building tarball for server1:

     - .bashrc

     - .ctags

     - .gitconfig

     - .inputrc

     - .profile (customized colors)

     - .pythonrc (customized colors)

     - .screenrc

     - .shell_aliases

     - .shell_prompt (customized colors)

     - .sqliterc (customized colors)

     - .vim/ (long list of files omitted)

     - .vimrc

     - .zshrc

    Uploading tarball to server1 ..

    Building tarball for server2:

     - .bashrc

     - .ctags

     - .gitconfig

     - .inputrc

     - .profile (customized colors)

     - .pythonrc (customized colors)

     - .screenrc

     - .shell_aliases

     - .shell_prompt (customized colors)

     - .sqliterc (customized colors)

     - .vim/ (long list of files omitted)

     - .vimrc

     - .zshrc

    Uploading tarball to server2 ..

    Building tarball for server3:

     - .bashrc

     - .ctags

     - .gitconfig

     - .inputrc

     - .profile (customized colors)

     - .pythonrc (customized colors)

     - .screenrc

     - .shell_aliases

     - .shell_prompt (customized colors)

     - .sqliterc (customized colors)

     - .vim/ (long list of files omitted)

     - .vimrc

     - .zshrc

    Uploading tarball to server3 ..

    All done!

With a dozen dotfiles and three servers the script finishes within a few seconds.

## Contact

If you have questions, bug reports, suggestions, etc. the author can be contacted at . The latest version is available at  and .

## License

This software is licensed under the [MIT license](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_License).  

© 2010 Peter Odding <>.