Dotbot should be able to automatically update any and all files I have being tracked

[David Awad]

maybe I'm not understanding this, but shouldn't it be obvious to have a ./install update or something that looks through all the files I'm symlinking and prepares a commit for me?

it would be a lot better than having to manually add each dotfile into install.conf.yaml and then add all of them to git as well.

[Anish Athalye]

I'm not sure I fully understand... What exactly do you imagine the workflow should be like?

[David Awad]

sorry about the lack of clarity. so let's say I copy a bunch of stuff into the dotfiles repo. I'd love it if it could make some default assumptions. e.g. ~/.something: something for all the files that are in the repo to make migrating to dotbot a little less manual

[David Awad]

that way I could say, "dotbot, there are some new files I want you to track in git for me, look through your config and make sure it has everything that's in this folder, if not add it"

then dotbot might look, notice all the files that are new, and then add them to it's own config.

from there you just git add/commit etc.

[Anish Athalye]

For migrating to Dotbot, there's this tool: https://github.com/Vaelatern/init-dotfiles

[Morgan Courbet]

I think @davidawad wants a feature that can add new files to an existing Dotbot-powered dotfiles repo.

For instance, I hear about i3, and I want to give it a try.

If I install it, I create the file ~/.config/i3/config to customize my new window manager. Once I'm happy with it, I want to track it:

$ cd ~/.dotfiles
$ mkdir i3
$ mv ~/.config/i3/config i3/
$ vim install.conf.yaml # add `- ~/.config/i3/config: i3/config`
$ ./install
$ # if something wrong – like `- ~/.config/i3/config: i3/confif` –, fix and repeat

These steps can be automated, and, FWIU, Vaelatern/init-dotfiles only manages a set of files and – as its name suggest it – initialize a new dotfiles repo.

[Anish Athalye]

Hmm, okay.

I'm not sure if implementing this feature saves that much work, though. And I don't think it's easy to implement (sometimes people have pretty complicated install.conf.yaml files).

[Greg Werbin]

I implemented this as a Git hook.

https://github.com/gwerbin/dotbot-autobot

[Anish Athalye]

Oh that's pretty cool! Wanna add a note about it to the wiki?

[David Awad]

as it turns out I'm a terrible communicator lol.

So yes I'd like it if I only ever had to add the file to my .dotfiles folder and commit it.

I should never have to add it manually to the yaml or run ./install everytime.
That's just me though. Im definitely gonna try out @gwerbin's solution

[Ben Klein]

@davidawad Does this kind of globbing support your initial request? #142

For example:

# set defaults use_globs: true
link:
  ~/: dotfiles/*

[Anish Athalye]

added dotbot-autobot to wiki.