dotlink is a lightweight dotfile manager based on hard and symbolic links. dotlink allows one to keep all configuration files in one location to which links are made to other locations in the file system. There are three locations in the file system associated with dotlink:

This is the directory at which a user's configuration files are placed

Currently, this file denotes the location of the dotlink directory. It is likely to be used for more things as dotlink expands

This file is inside the dotlink directory. It keeps track of all the links made to files in the files system made with dotlink such that every time a new link is made, it is recorded. The file is used for synchronizing the filesystem with the "image" of the links in the filesystem described in dotlinks.json. In this way, for example, dotfiles stored in a git repository can be cloned to another computer using dotlink and the same links made on the original computer can be recreated on the new.

Currently, dotlink needs to be downloaded via git. It will later be available on the PyPI, though name conflicts currently exist.

To install, first run from your terminal

git clone https://github.com/synergistics/dotlink

to download the source.

Now you should be able to view the code; mess with it if you want.

To install for client usage issue the following after cloning the repo

cd dotlink
pip install .

You should now be able to use dotlink. Run

dotlink --help

to ensure that dotlink was installed properly.

From there, happy configuring!

dotlink init [<path>] dotlink link [-s] <target> <link_name>   
dotlink rmlink <link_name> dotlink migrate [-s] <src> [<dest>]   
dotlink show   
dotlink sync  
dotlink <command> --help  

init : Initialize a dotlink directory   
link : Link a file in the dotlink directory to a location on the filesystem   
rmlink : Remove the link of a file in the dotlink directory   
migrate : Move a file not managed with dotlink to the dotlink directory  
show : List the current dotlinks on the filesystem   
sync : Synchronize the filesystem with links specified in dotlinks.json