Metadot: modular dotfile management
===================================

Metadot allows you to easilly manage and reuse existing dotfiles repositories
by simply cloning then to your `~/.dotfiles/modules` and renaming a few files.

By being modular, it's possible to create modules for specific applications
(vim, mutt, emacs, git, etc). By using git submodules or subtrees, one can even
create her own dotfile bundle.

It was inspired by [holman does dotfiles](https://github.com/holman/dotfiles)
and many other initiatives but with a modular design to ease dotfile sharing as
the `metadot` code is split from the dotfiles' folder.

Instalation
-----------

Get the code:

    git clone git://git.sarava.org/metadot.git && cd metadot

Then check the source integrity of the latest release:

    tag="`git describe --abbrev=0 --tags`"
    git tag -v $tag && git checkout $tag

Save the metadot repository anywhere but make sure it's available in your `$PATH`.
I'm my config I use `~/apps/metadot`.

Then get some modules. You can get the whole standard module bundle with

    metadot clone git://git.sarava.org/rhatto/dotfiles.git

Or simply using

    metadot clone default

Modules names as `dotfiles` have a special meaning and are handled like bundles
and are cloned directly as `~/.dotfiles`. After cloning, you can check the current
dotfiles revision using

    metadot version

Third-party bundles will hardly suit your needs, so you can fetch individual
modules:

    metadot clone git://git.sarava.org/rhatto/dotfiles/vim.git

Or even start your own:

    metadot create vim

In both cases your `vim` module will be available at `~/.dotfiles/modules/vim`.

You can use just one bundle at a time. While you can mixed a bundle with
individual modules, it's more sane to just start your own bundle and keep
modules as git submodules or subtrees.

Usage
-----

List existing modules:

    metadot ls

Load a module:

    metadot load <module>

Load all modules:

    metadot load --all

Update a module bundle or all individual modules:

    metadot update

Backups are made whenever a module is loaded.

Layout
------

- `~/.dotfiles`: where all dotfiles modules are stored
- `~/.backups`: backups of old config files
- `~/.custom`: some modules use this folder for custom configuration overriding default parameters

Module format
-------------

Modules rest at ~/.dotfiles/modules and can be git submodules or subtrees. File format is:

    [path/]<name>[.dot][.link]

Which means files

- with a `.link` extension are linked at `$HOME`.
- with a `.dot.link` extension are converted to a dotfile: `vimrc.dot.link` is linked as `~/.vimrc`.
- with other extensions are ignored.

Also,

- file structure is preserved: `apps/scripts.link` is linked as `$HOME/apps/scripts`.
- nested structures are allowed: `config.dot/awesome.link` is linked as `$HOME/.config/awesome`.

See also
--------

* http://dotshare.it
* http://dotfiles.org
* https://dotfiles.github.io
* https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dotfiles
* http://www.madewithtea.com/dotfiles-are-your-digital-backpack.html

Contact
-------

Comments and patches: rhatto at riseup.net