dotfiles

Motivation

Around year 2000, I heard, saw, and - I vaguely recall - used myself a bare repository approach to store my configuration files. Since I change my desktop computer only every 6-7 years on the average, it did not make sense to formalize it.

Now that I use [[Omarchy]] on both my [[Framework Laptop 13]] and [[Desktop 2024]], maybe it is time to try again ;)

Approach

The options I see are:

• GNU stow: although recommended in the Omarchy Manual, its symlink-based approach does not appeal to me;
• bare GIT repository: there are many guides, but I'd like something that helps with creating and maintaining the dotfiles repository;
• yadm seems to be a thin enough wrapper around a GIT repository which does help with routine tasks;
• chezmoi gets a lot of praise for better templating than yadm, but since I don't even understand what templating is, let alone need it, I am going to go with yadm for now :)

yadm arranges for the home directory to be the work tree of the dotfiles repository stored in .local/share/yadm/repo.git.

There is no ~/.git. $HOME is not a Git repository.

Only a small explicit set is tracked (~60–70 files: shell, Hypr/Omarchy, yadm bootstrap, a few .grok/skills, rclone helpers) — not the whole home directory.

status.showUntrackedFiles = no, so yadm status hides untracked files; yadm ls-files shows what is actually in the repo.

Installation

To install yadm on Omarchy:

$ sudo pacman -S yadm
$ yadm init
$ yadm remote add origin "git@github.com:dubinsky/dotfiles.git"
$ yadm add <file>
$ yadm commit -m "<message>"
$ yadm push

Bootstrap

After checkout, yadm runs .config/yadm/bootstrap executable; it can also be run explicitly with

$ yadm bootstrap

I use a script copied from the yadm manual which runs all the executables in .config/yadm/bootstrap.d/.

AUR packages that bootstrap.d installs:

• zotero-bin — official Zotero Linux tarball. Do not use AUR zotero; it compiles from git/npm.
• devpod-community-bin, google-cloud-cli, oscar, jetbrains-toolbox, chirp-next, sdrpp-git, sdrsharp

FreeCAD is official freecad plus python-shapely. IfcOpenShell is not installed.

Readme

There are ways to add README to the yadm repository without polluting the home directory: use sparse checkout or put README under .github.

My README is the note you are reading ;)

Secrets

Traveling secrets (HA/UniFi API tokens, and the like) go through yadm encrypt, not plaintext in the repo.

Private material is only on the 5C (serial 18600387). Decrypt needs the card, User PIN, and a touch (uif decrypt=on). Encrypt uses the public key (no tap).

After changing a secret:

$ yadm encrypt && yadm add ~/.local/share/yadm/archive && yadm commit

On a new machine: import the .asc (bootstrap does this), then yadm decrypt. Do not yadm add the matched plaintext files.

.zotero/**/prefs.js is in the repo exclude — API keys leaked there once.

Other approaches I considered and did not use:

• git-crypt
• transcrypt
• git-secret
• SOPS

yadm supports transcrypt and git-crypt directly.

Clone

On the new machine, run:

$ yadm clone --bootstrap https://github.com/dubinsky/dotfiles.git

yadm does not change pre-existing files; they can be overwritten with

$ yadm checkout <file>

Manual Tweaks

-Dawt.toolkit.name=WLToolkit