Dotfiles-md NPM

dotfiles-md

Maintain your system configuration as a collection of installable markdown blocks

Usage

Requires: node.js. See contributing for instructions on installing a local copy

Simply navigate to your folder of markdown and then run the interactive CLI:

$ npx dotfiles-md

running the demo

Or if you have a dotfile ready-to-go, invoke it with:

$ npx dotfiles-md --auto DOTFILE.md

CLI Commands

run the help command to view help pages

$ npx dotfiles-md --help

How to write Dotfiles in markdown

Consult the included demo, which may be easier to understand than the specification below.

Code block metadata

Each codeblock is created with three backticks (`) or tildes (~) and assigned a space-delimited collection of metadata:

```<lang> [filePath] [...options]
```

this should generally be compatible with other documentation systems.

The <lang> directive is the usual markdown code block langauge format. In addition to useful syntax highlighting, this language will determine how to run imperative settings defined with action=run (eg. executing scripts).

A [filePath] option may be provided in order to direct the output of the code block to a file. It must not contain an equals sign =.

The [...options] array is a space-delimited list of key=value directives defining how the CLI should act on this code block. Values must be quoted if they contain spaces (eg. title="a fancy title").

Codeblock Options and Actions

action defines what dotfiles-md will do with the block contents:
- =build: build the file to [filePath]
- =run: run this code block according to the file syntax (js: node, sh, bash, zsh)
- =symlink: find-replace patterns (%...) in the codeblock and symlink the result (from /build) to [filePath]
- =section: use the contents of the code block as a section divider in the CLI
disabled=<string>: prevent a block code block from being runnable. The <string> is displayed in the UI.
title=<string> a title for the code block to appear in the CLI. <string> must be quoted if it contains spaces.
when defines the availability of this codeblock
- =os.darwin: the block will only run on MacOS platforms
- =os.win32: the block will only run on Windows platforms

Using private `.env` data

If the directory you run dotfiles-md from includes a .env file, it will be used as a source for replacements in your dotfiles. Prefix your environment variables with % in your dotfiles source as in:

given: an .env file containing S3_BUCKET=my-fancy-bucket
when: dotfiles-md encounters a dotfile containing %S3_BUCKET
then: dotfiles will replace that string with my-fancy-bucket

Contributing

Contributions are always welcome!

See CONTRIBUTING.md for ways to get started.

Please adhere to a reasonable code of conduct.

Install or Run Locally

# Clone the project
git clone git@github.com:sgregson/dotfiles-md.git
# Go to the project directory
cd dotfiles-md
# Install dependencies
yarn
# Run the interactive CLI
npx dotfiles-md --help

Roadmap

implement when=<conditions> (v0.3.0)
implement action=run (v0.4.6) for imperative settings
implement action=section for block labelling (v0.6.0)
implement find-replace from .env files (v0.7.0)
- (idea) create sections from nearest doc heading. not sure this is actually more useful than current, but it saves some manual work
(idea) Update & Improve Interface UI: 2-panel layout for navigation and show a codeblock
(idea) Generate diff when file a exists instead of the current backup flow

FAQ

Why markdown files?

Specifically, literate markdown. IMHO dotfiles (or configuration in general) should be organized in a way that makes sense to you for fast recall and organization. From there you can choose whether to manipulate your $PATH or direct them to known defaults (like ~/.gitconfig vs !/.config/git/config).

I also really liked the topic-centric approach of other dotfiles managers (like holman/dotfiles) but found I need to give myself WAY more context on the operations than code comments since I update them so infrequently.

Why an interactive CLI?

All my old dotfiles systems relied on either a "bag of scripts" folder or someone else's CLI. I loved using kody for a long time, but updating the dotfiles became difficult as my config grew stale.