YADM(1) General Commands Manual YADM(1) NAME yadm - Yet Another Dotfiles Manager SYNOPSIS yadm command [options] yadm git-command-or-alias [options] yadm init [-f] [-w dir] yadm clone url [-f] [-w dir] [-b branch] [--bootstrap] [--no-bootstrap] yadm config name [value] yadm config [-e] yadm list [-a] yadm bootstrap yadm encrypt yadm decrypt [-l] yadm alt yadm perms yadm enter [command] yadm git-crypt [options] yadm transcrypt [options] yadm upgrade [-f] yadm introspect category DESCRIPTION yadm is a tool for managing a collection of files across multiple comput- ers, using a shared Git repository. In addition, yadm provides a feature to select alternate versions of files for particular systems. Lastly, yadm supplies the ability to manage a subset of secure files, which are en- crypted before they are included in the repository. COMMANDS git-command or git-alias Any command not internally handled by yadm is passed through to git(1). Git commands or aliases are invoked with the yadm managed repository. The working directory for Git commands will be the con- figured work-tree (usually $HOME). Dotfiles are managed by using standard git commands; add, commit, push, pull, etc. The config command is not passed directly through. Instead use the gitconfig command (see below). alt Create symbolic links and process templates for any managed files matching the naming rules described in the ALTERNATES and TEMPLATES sections. It is usually unnecessary to run this command, as yadm au- tomatically processes alternates by default. This automatic behavior can be disabled by setting the configuration yadm.auto-alt to "false". bootstrap Execute $HOME/.config/yadm/bootstrap if it exists. clone url Clone a remote repository for tracking dotfiles. After the contents of the remote repository have been fetched, a "check out" of the re- mote HEAD branch is attempted. If there are conflicting files al- ready present in the work-tree, the local version will be left un- modified and you'll have to review and resolve the difference. The repository is stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/repo.git. By default, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be over- ridden with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite an ex- isting repository by providing the -f option. If you want to use a branch other than the remote HEAD branch you can specify it using the -b option. By default yadm will ask the user if the bootstrap program should be run (if it exists). The options --bootstrap or --no-bootstrap will either force the bootstrap to be run, or prevent it from being run, without prompting the user. config This command manages configurations for yadm. This command works exactly the way git-config(1) does. See the CONFIGURATION section for more details. decrypt Decrypt all files stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive. Files decrypted will be relative to the configured work-tree (usu- ally $HOME). Using the -l option will list the files stored without extracting them. encrypt Encrypt all files matching the patterns found in $HOME/.con- fig/yadm/encrypt. See the ENCRYPTION section for more details. enter Run a sub-shell with all Git variables set. Exit the sub-shell the same way you leave your normal shell (usually with the "exit" com- mand). This sub-shell can be used to easily interact with your yadm repository using "git" commands. This could be useful if you are us- ing a tool which uses Git directly, such as tig, vim-fugitive, git- cola, etc. Optionally, you can provide a command after "enter", and instead of invoking your shell, that command will be run with all of the Git variables exposed to the command's environment. Emacs Tramp and Magit can manage files by using this configuration: (add-to-list 'tramp-methods '("yadm" (tramp-login-program "yadm") (tramp-login-args (("enter"))) (tramp-login-env (("SHELL") ("/bin/sh"))) (tramp-remote-shell "/bin/sh") (tramp-remote-shell-args ("-c")))) With this config, use (magit-status "/yadm::"). git-crypt options If git-crypt is installed, this command allows you to pass options directly to git-crypt, with the environment configured to use the yadm repository. git-crypt enables transparent encryption and decryption of files in a git repository. You can read https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt for details. gitconfig Pass options to the git config command. Since yadm already uses the config command to manage its own configurations, this command is provided as a way to change configurations of the repository managed by yadm. One useful case might be to configure the repository so untracked files are shown in status commands. yadm initially config- ures its repository so that untracked files are not shown. If you wish use the default Git behavior (to show untracked files and di- rectories), you can remove this configuration. yadm gitconfig --unset status.showUntrackedFiles help Print a summary of yadm commands. init Initialize a new, empty repository for tracking dotfiles. The repository is stored in $HOME/.local/share/yadm/repo.git. By de- fault, $HOME will be used as the work-tree, but this can be overrid- den with the -w option. yadm can be forced to overwrite an existing repository by providing the -f option. list Print a list of files managed by yadm. The -a option will cause all managed files to be listed. Otherwise, the list will only include files from the current directory or below. introspect category Report internal yadm data. Supported categories are commands, con- figs, repo, and switches. The purpose of introspection is to sup- port command line completion. perms Update permissions as described in the PERMISSIONS section. It is usually unnecessary to run this command, as yadm automatically processes permissions by default. This automatic behavior can be disabled by setting the configuration yadm.auto-perms to "false". transcrypt options If transcrypt is installed, this command allows you to pass options directly to transcrypt, with the environment configured to use the yadm repository. transcrypt enables transparent encryption and decryption of files in a git repository. You can read https://github.com/elasticdog/tran- scrypt for details. upgrade Version 3 of yadm uses a different directory for storing data. When you start to use version 3 for the first time, you may see warnings about moving your data to this new directory. The easiest way to accomplish this is by running "yadm upgrade". This command will start by moving your yadm repo to the new path. Next it will move any archive data. If the archive is tracked within your yadm repo, this command will "stage" the renaming of that file in the repo's index. Upgrading will attempt to de-initialize and re-initialize your sub- modules. If your submodules cannot be de-initialized, the upgrade will fail. The most common reason submodules will fail to de-ini- tialize is because they have local modifications. If you are willing to lose the local modifications to those submodules, you can use the -f option with the "upgrade" command to force the de-initialization. After running "yadm upgrade", you should run "yadm status" to review changes which have been staged, and commit them to your repository. You can read https://yadm.io/docs/upgrade_from_2 for more informa- tion. version Print the version of yadm. OPTIONS yadm supports a set of universal options that alter the paths it uses. The default paths are documented in the FILES section. Any path specified by these options must be fully qualified. If you always want to override one or more of these paths, it may be useful to create an alias for the yadm command. For example, the following alias could be used to override the repository directory. alias yadm='yadm --yadm-repo /alternate/path/to/repo' The following is the full list of universal options. Each option should be followed by a path. -Y, --yadm-dir Override the yadm directory. yadm stores its configurations rela- tive to this directory. --yadm-data Override the yadm data directory. yadm stores its data relative to this directory. --yadm-repo Override the location of the yadm repository. --yadm-config Override the location of the yadm configuration file. --yadm-encrypt Override the location of the yadm encryption configuration. --yadm-archive Override the location of the yadm encrypted files archive. --yadm-bootstrap Override the location of the yadm bootstrap program. CONFIGURATION yadm uses a configuration file named $HOME/.config/yadm/config. This file uses the same format as git-config(1). Also, you can control the contents of the configuration file via the yadm config command (which works exactly like git-config). For example, to disable alternates you can run the com- mand: yadm config yadm.auto-alt false The following is the full list of supported configurations: yadm.alt-copy If set to "true", alternate files will be copies instead of symbolic links. This might be desirable, because some systems may not prop- erly support symlinks. yadm.auto-alt Disable the automatic linking described in the section ALTERNATES. If disabled, you may still run "yadm alt" manually to create the al- ternate links. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.auto-exclude Disable the automatic exclusion of created alternate links, template files and patterns defined in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt. This fea- ture is enabled by default. yadm.auto-perms Disable the automatic permission changes described in the section PERMISSIONS. If disabled, you may still run yadm perms manually to update permissions. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.auto-private-dirs Disable the automatic creating of private directories described in the section PERMISSIONS. yadm.cipher Configure which encryption system is used by the encrypt/decrypt commands. Valid options are "gpg" and "openssl". The default is "gpg". Detailed information can be found in the section ENCRYPTION. yadm.git-program Specify an alternate program to use instead of "git". By default, the first "git" found in $PATH is used. yadm.gpg-perms Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.gnupg/*. This feature is enabled by default. yadm.gpg-program Specify an alternate program to use instead of "gpg". By default, the first "gpg" found in $PATH is used. yadm.gpg-recipient Asymmetrically encrypt files with a gpg public/private key pair. Provide a "key ID" to specify which public key to encrypt with. The key must exist in your public keyrings. Multiple recipients can be specified (separated by space). If left blank or not provided, sym- metric encryption is used instead. If set to "ASK", gpg will inter- actively ask for recipients. See the ENCRYPTION section for more details. This feature is disabled by default. yadm.openssl-ciphername Specify which cipher should be used by openssl. "aes-256-cbc" is used by default. yadm.openssl-old Newer versions of openssl support the pbkdf2 key derivation func- tion. This is used by default. If this configuration is set to "true", openssl operations will use options compatible with older versions of openssl. If you change this option, you will need to recreate your encrypted archive. yadm.openssl-program Specify an alternate program to use instead of "openssl". By de- fault, the first "openssl" found in $PATH is used. yadm.ssh-perms Disable the permission changes to $HOME/.ssh/*. This feature is en- abled by default. The following "local" configurations are not stored in the $HOME/.con- fig/yadm/config, they are stored in the local repository. local.class Specify a class for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. By default, no class will be matched. The local host can be assigned multiple classes using command: yadm config --add local.class <additional-class> local.arch Override the architecture for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.hostname Override the hostname for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.os Override the OS for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.user Override the user for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.distro Override the distro for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. local.distro-family Override the distro family for the purpose of symlinking alternate files. ALTERNATES When managing a set of files across different systems, it can be useful to have an automated way of choosing an alternate version of a file for a dif- ferent operating system, host, user, etc. yadm will automatically create a symbolic link to the appropriate version of a file, when a valid suffix is appended to the filename. The suffix con- tains the conditions that must be met for that file to be used. The suffix begins with "##", followed by any number of conditions separated by commas. ##<condition>[,<condition>,...] Each condition is an attribute/value pair, separated by a period. Some con- ditions do not require a "value", and in that case, the period and value can be omitted. Most attributes can be abbreviated as a single letter. Pre- fixing an attribute with "~" negates the condition, meaning the condition is considered only if the attribute/value pair evaluates to false. [~]<attribute>[.<value>] NOTE: Value is compared case-insensitive. These are the supported attributes, in the order of the weighted prece- dence: template, t Valid when the value matches a supported template processor. See the TEMPLATES section for more details. user, u Valid if the value matches the current user. Current user is calcu- lated by running id -u -n. hostname, h Valid if the value matches the short hostname. Hostname is calcu- lated by running uname -n, and trimming off any domain. class, c Valid if the value matches the local.class configuration. Class must be manually set using yadm config local.class <class>. See the CONFIGURATION section for more details about setting local.class. distro_family, f Valid if the value matches the distro family. Distro family is cal- culated by inspecting the ID_LIKE line from /etc/os-release (or ID if no ID_LIKE line is found). distro, d Valid if the value matches the distro. Distro is calculated by run- ning lsb_release -si or by inspecting the ID from /etc/os-release. os, o Valid if the value matches the OS. OS is calculated by running un- ame -s. arch, a Valid if the value matches the architecture. Architecture is calcu- lated by running uname -m. default Valid when no other alternate is valid. extension, e A special "condition" that doesn't affect the selection process. Its purpose is instead to allow the alternate file to end with a certain extension to e.g. make editors highlight the content properly. NOTE: The OS for "Windows Subsystem for Linux" is reported as "WSL", even though uname identifies as "Linux". You may use any number of conditions, in any order. An alternate will only be used if ALL conditions are valid. For all files managed by yadm's repository or listed in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt, if they match this nam- ing convention, symbolic links will be created for the most appropriate version. The "most appropriate" version is determined by calculating a score for each version of a file. A template is always scored higher than any symlink condition. The number of conditions is the next largest factor in scoring; files with more conditions will always be favored. Negative conditions (prefixed with "~") are scored only relative to the number of non-negated conditions. Any invalid condition will disqualify that file completely. If you don't care to have all versions of alternates stored in the same di- rectory as the generated symlink, you can place them in the $HOME/.con- fig/yadm/alt directory. The generated symlink or processed template will be created using the same relative path. Alternate linking may best be demonstrated by example. Assume the following files are managed by yadm's repository: - $HOME/path/example.txt##default - $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work - $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work,~os.Darwin - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,hostname.host1 - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,hostname.host2 - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux,hostname.host1 - $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux,hostname.host2 If running on a Macbook named "host2", yadm will create a symbolic link which looks like this: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin,hostname.host2 However, on another Mackbook named "host3", yadm will create a symbolic link which looks like this: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Darwin Since the hostname doesn't match any of the managed files, the more generic version is chosen. If running on a Linux server named "host4", the link will be: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##os.Linux If running on a Solaris server, the link will use the default version: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##default If running on a Macbook with class set to "Work", the link will be: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work Since class has higher precedence than os, this version is chosen. If running on a system with class set to "Work", but instead within Windows Subsystem for Linux, where the os is reported as WSL, the link will be: $HOME/path/example.txt -> $HOME/path/example.txt##class.Work,~os.Darwin If no "##default" version exists and no files have valid conditions, then no link will be created. Links are also created for directories named this way, as long as they have at least one yadm managed file within them. yadm will automatically create these links by default. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-alt configuration. Even if disabled, links can be man- ually created by running yadm alt. Created links are automatically added to the repository's info/exclude file. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-exclude configuration. Class is a special value which is stored locally on each host (inside the local repository). To use alternate symlinks using class, you must set the value of class using the configuration local.class. This is set like any other yadm configuration with the yadm config command. The following sets the class to be "Work". yadm config local.class Work Similarly, the values of architecture, os, hostname, user, distro, and dis- tro_family can be manually overridden using the configuration options lo- cal.arch, local.os, local.hostname, local.user, local.distro, and lo- cal.distro-family. TEMPLATES If a template condition is defined in an alternate file's "##" suffix, and the necessary dependencies for the template are available, then the file will be processed to create or overwrite files. Supported template processors: default This is yadm's built-in template processor. This processor is very basic, with a Jinja-like syntax. The advantage of this processor is that it only depends upon awk, which is available on most *nix sys- tems. To use this processor, specify the value of "default" or just leave the value off (e.g. "##template"). NOTE: This template processor performs case-insensitive comparisions in if statements. ESH ESH is a template processor written in POSIX compliant shell. It al- lows executing shell commands within templates. This can be used to reference your own configurations within templates, for example: <% yadm config mysection.myconfig %> To use the ESH template processor, specify the value of "esh" j2cli To use the j2cli Jinja template processor, specify the value of "j2" or "j2cli". envtpl To use the envtpl Jinja template processor, specify the value of "j2" or "envtpl". NOTE: Specifying "j2" as the processor will attempt to use j2cli or envtpl, whichever is available. If the template processor specified is available, templates will be processed to create or overwrite files. During processing, the following variables are available in the template: Default Jinja or ESH Description ------------- ------------- ---------------------------- yadm.arch YADM_ARCH uname -m yadm.class YADM_CLASS Last locally defined class yadm.classes YADM_CLASSES All classes yadm.distro YADM_DISTRO lsb_release -si yadm.distro_family YADM_DISTRO_FAMILY ID_LIKE from /etc/os-release yadm.filename Filename for the current file yadm.hostname YADM_HOSTNAME uname -n (without domain) yadm.os YADM_OS uname -s yadm.source YADM_SOURCE Template filename yadm.user YADM_USER id -u -n env.VAR Environment variable VAR NOTE: The OS for "Windows Subsystem for Linux" is reported as "WSL", even though uname identifies as "Linux". NOTE: If lsb_release is not available, DISTRO will be the ID specified in /etc/os-release. Examples: whatever##template with the following content {% if yadm.user == "harvey" %} config={{yadm.class}}-{{yadm.os}} {% else %} config=dev-whatever {% include "whatever.extra" %} {% endif %} would output a file named whatever with the following content if the user is "harvey": config=work-Linux and the following otherwise (if whatever.extra contains admin=false): config=dev-whatever admin=false An equivalent Jinja template named whatever##template.j2 would look like: {% if YADM_USER == 'harvey' -%} config={{YADM_CLASS}}-{{YADM_OS}} {% else -%} config=dev-whatever {% include 'whatever.extra' %} {% endif -%} An equivalent ESH templated named whatever##template.esh would look like: <% if [ "$YADM_USER" = "harvey" ]; then -%> config=<%= $YADM_CLASS %>-<%= $YADM_OS %> <% else -%> config=dev-whatever <%+ whatever.extra %> <% fi -%> Created files are automatically added to the repository's info/exclude file. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-exclude configuration. ENCRYPTION It can be useful to manage confidential files, like SSH or GPG keys, across multiple systems. However, doing so would put plain text data into a Git repository, which often resides on a public system. yadm can make it easy to encrypt and decrypt a set of files so the encrypted version can be main- tained in the Git repository. This feature will only work if a supported tool is available. Both gpg(1) and openssl(1) are supported. gpg is used by default, but openssl can be configured with the yadm.cipher configura- tion. To use this feature, a list of patterns (one per line) must be created and saved as $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt. This list of patterns should be rela- tive to the configured work-tree (usually $HOME). For example: .ssh/*.key .gnupg/*.gpg Standard filename expansions (*, ?, [) are supported. Two consecutive as- terisks "**" can be used to match all subdirectories. Other shell expan- sions like brace and tilde are not supported. Spaces in paths are sup- ported, and should not be quoted. If a directory is specified, its con- tents will be included. Paths beginning with a "!" will be excluded. The yadm encrypt command will find all files matching the patterns, and prompt for a password. Once a password has confirmed, the matching files will be encrypted and saved as $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive. The "en- crypt" and "archive" files should be added to the yadm repository so they are available across multiple systems. To decrypt these files later, or on another system run yadm decrypt and provide the correct password. After files are decrypted, permissions are automatically updated as described in the PERMISSIONS section. Symmetric encryption is used by default, but asymmetric encryption may be enabled using the yadm.gpg-recipient configuration. NOTE: It is recommended that you use a private repository when keeping con- fidential files, even though they are encrypted. Patterns found in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt are automatically added to the repository's info/exclude file every time yadm encrypt is run. This is to prevent accidentally committing sensitive data to the repository. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-exclude configuration. Using transcrypt or git-crypt A completely separate option for encrypting data is to install and use transcrypt or git-crypt. Once installed, you can use these tools by run- ning yadm transcrypt or yadm git-crypt. These tools enables transparent encryption and decryption of files in a git repository. See the following web sites for more information: - https://github.com/elasticdog/transcrypt - https://github.com/AGWA/git-crypt PERMISSIONS When files are checked out of a Git repository, their initial permissions are dependent upon the user's umask. Because of this, yadm will automati- cally update the permissions of some file paths. The "group" and "others" permissions will be removed from the following files: - $HOME/.local/share/yadm/archive - All files matching patterns in $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt - The SSH directory and files, .ssh/* - The GPG directory and files, .gnupg/* yadm will automatically update permissions by default. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-perms configuration. Even if disabled, permissions can be manually updated by running yadm perms. The .ssh directory processing can be disabled using the yadm.ssh-perms configuration. The .gnupg direc- tory processing can be disabled using the yadm.gpg-perms configuration. When cloning a repo which includes data in a .ssh or .gnupg directory, if those directories do not exist at the time of cloning, yadm will create the directories with mask 0700 prior to merging the fetched data into the work- tree. When running a Git command and .ssh or .gnupg directories do not exist, yadm will create those directories with mask 0700 prior to running the Git command. This can be disabled using the yadm.auto-private-dirs configura- tion. HOOKS For every command yadm supports, a program can be provided to run before or after that command. These are referred to as "hooks". yadm looks for hooks in the directory $HOME/.config/yadm/hooks. Each hook is named using a pre- fix of pre_ or post_, followed by the command which should trigger the hook. For example, to create a hook which is run after every yadm pull com- mand, create a hook named post_pull. Hooks must have the executable file permission set. If a pre_ hook is defined, and the hook terminates with a non-zero exit status, yadm will refuse to run the yadm command. For example, if a pre_commit hook is defined, but that command ends with a non-zero exit sta- tus, the yadm commit will never be run. This allows one to "short-circuit" any operation using a pre_ hook. Hooks have the following environment variables available to them at run- time: YADM_HOOK_COMMAND The command which triggered the hook YADM_HOOK_DATA The path to the yadm data directory YADM_HOOK_DIR The path to the yadm directory YADM_HOOK_EXIT The exit status of the yadm command YADM_HOOK_FULL_COMMAND The yadm command with all command line arguments (parameters are space delimited, and any space, tab or backslash will be escaped with a backslash) YADM_HOOK_REPO The path to the yadm repository YADM_HOOK_WORK The path to the work-tree FILES All of yadm's configurations are relative to the "yadm directory". yadm uses the "XDG Base Directory Specification" to determine this directory. If the environment variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is defined as a fully quali- fied path, this directory will be $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/yadm. Otherwise it will be $HOME/.config/yadm. Similarly, yadm's data files are relative to the "yadm data directory". yadm uses the "XDG Base Directory Specification" to determine this direc- tory. If the environment variable $XDG_DATA_HOME is defined as a fully qualified path, this directory will be $XDG_DATA_HOME/yadm. Otherwise it will be $HOME/.local/share/yadm. The following are the default paths yadm uses for its own data. Most of these paths can be altered using universal options. See the OPTIONS sec- tion for details. $HOME/.config/yadm The yadm directory. By default, all configs yadm stores is relative to this directory. $HOME/.local/share/yadm The yadm data directory. By default, all data yadm stores is rela- tive to this directory. $YADM_DIR/config Configuration file for yadm. $YADM_DIR/alt This is a directory to keep "alternate files" without having them side-by-side with the resulting symlink or processed template. Al- ternate files placed in this directory will be created relative to $HOME instead. $YADM_DATA/repo.git Git repository used by yadm. $YADM_DIR/encrypt List of globs used for encrypt/decrypt $YADM_DATA/archive All files encrypted with yadm encrypt are stored in this file. EXAMPLES yadm init Create an empty repo for managing files yadm add .bash_profile ; yadm commit Add .bash_profile to the Git index and create a new commit yadm remote add origin <url> Add a remote origin to an existing repository yadm push -u origin master Initial push of master to origin echo .ssh/*.key >> $HOME/.config/yadm/encrypt Add a new pattern to the list of encrypted files yadm encrypt ; yadm add ~/.local/share/yadm/archive ; yadm commit Commit a new set of encrypted files REPORTING BUGS Report issues or create pull requests at GitHub: https://github.com/yadm-dev/yadm/issues AUTHORS Tim Byrne <sultan@locehilios.com> Erik Flodin <erik@flodin.me> SEE ALSO git(1), gpg(1) openssl(1) transcrypt(1) git-crypt(1) https://yadm.io/ 3.5.0 March 3, 2025 YADM(1)
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | COMMANDS | OPTIONS | CONFIGURATION | ALTERNATES | TEMPLATES | ENCRYPTION | PERMISSIONS | HOOKS | FILES | EXAMPLES | REPORTING BUGS | AUTHORS | SEE ALSO
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