dots

Manage dotfiles declaratively and reuse your setup across machines

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Introduction

dots helps you manage machine configuration. Create symlinks, install packages, start and enable services, install fonts, and run commands in a declarative way.

Use it for your computers, dotfiles, or servers. Declare the setup once and reuse it across your machines.

Quick start

Install the latest release:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phcurado/dots/main/install.sh | sh

Create a dotfiles repo, or use one you already have:

dots init

The command above creates the file dots.lua, the main entrypoint for your configuration. You can manage symlinks, packages, services, and more:

local packages = { "bat", "ripgrep" }

dots.symlink("~/.zshrc", ".zshrc")

if dots.platform.family == "arch" then
  dots.pacman.install({ "base-devel", "git" })
  dots.yay.enable({ method = "aur" })
  dots.yay.install(packages)
  dots.systemd.enable({ "docker.service" })
  dots.systemd.start({ "docker.service" })
end

if dots.platform.family == "darwin" then
  dots.brew.enable()
  dots.brew.install(packages)
  dots.brew.cask({ "firefox" })
end

Plan the changes:

dots check

On a fresh Arch distro, it should show:

Symlinks:
+ symlink ~/.zshrc -> .zshrc

Packages:
+ pacman base-devel
+ pacman git
+ yay bat
+ yay ripgrep

Services:
+ systemd enable docker.service
+ systemd start docker.service

Check: 7 to create, 0 to update, 0 to destroy.

Apply the changes:

dots apply

dots will create the symlinks, install the packages, and start the services you declared. You declare what the system should have and how it should behave, then reuse the same setup across the machines that need it.

See the docs for more.