operandum

An easy-to-use secure Dotfiles, Tasks and Scripts manager for UNIX systems (Linux, Macos, etc.)

Currently, it's in development; however, it can be used for stowing Dotfiles and running tasks.

User's example
Documentation example

Table of Contents

• Installation
• Usage
  • Initialization
  • Stowing Dotfiles
  • Running Tasks
• Commands
• Feedback and Contributing
• License

Installation

Currently, operandum can only be installed using npm. To install it, run the following command:

npm install -g operandum

Pay attention that the package has to be installed using the -g flag to be able to globally use the operandum commands.

Usage

Initialization

Say, you have a directory with your dotfiles, tasks, and scripts at ~/.dotfiles ($HOME/.dotfiles). To initialize operandum, run the following command:

cd ~/.dotfiles
operandum init

After running operandum init, you are going to be asked a few questions to set up the configuration file. If you answered wrongly or want to change the configuration, you can run operandum reinit.

The configuration file is a single file - operandum.ini. It is located in the root of the directory where you initialized operandum. (For example, ~/.dotfiles/operandum.ini, where ~/.dotfiles is the root directory.)

The initial congifuration file is going to look like this:

; operandum - INI config file

dotfiles=dotfiles
tasks=tasks

If you changed the default values for Dotfiles and Tasks folders during your initialization, you're going to see the following in your config: dotfiles=(name of the folder you chose without parenthesis) and the same for the tasks.

To see properties for the configuration file, check the Configuration page.

Stowing Dotfiles

Your Dotfiles folder's name is dotfiles by default. If you changed it, you can see its name in operandum.ini configuration file.

Locations for stowing (or symlinking) your Dotfiles are defined in the locations.ini file. The locations.ini file has a format of:

filename=/path/to/destination
exapmle=$HOME/.config

Example

Now, for the sake of the example, move your Dotfiles inside of the Dotfiles folder.
Say, you have the following structure:

--------------------------
~/.dotfiles (root folder)
--------------------------
| bin/
|  | .local/...
|  | testfile/...
|  | test.txt
|  | locations.ini
|  | ^-- {  ; locations.ini contents
|  | ^-- {  ; Wildcard '*' can be used
|  | ^-- {  *=$HOME
| git/
|  | .gitconfig
| nvim/
|  | .config/
|  |  | nvim/...
|  | locations.ini
|  | ^-- {  ; locations.ini contents
|  | ^-- {  .config=$HOME
| .gitignore
| .gitmodules
| English.keylayout
| locations.ignore
| package.json
| package-lock.json
--------------------------

And your locations.ignore file looks like this:

English.keylayout
package.json
package-lock.json

So, what gets stowed where?

• The files English.keylayout, package.json, and package-lock.json are going to be ignored, because they are in locations.ignore

• The files in the bin folder are going to be stowed in the $HOME directory.

  • The bin/.local folder already (probably) exists in the $HOME directory, which means its contents are going to be symlinked inside the $HOME/.local directory.
    (For example, bin/.local/hello.txt -> $HOME/.local/hello.txt)

  • The bin/testfile folder doesn't exist in the $HOME directory, so the whole folder of testfile going to be symlinked to the $HOME directory. bin/testfile -> $HOME/testfile

  • The bin/test.txt file is going to be symlinked to the $HOME directory. bin/test.txt -> $HOME/test.txt

• The git directory doesn't have a locations.ini file, so it's files (NOT folders) are going to be symlinked to the $HOME directory. git/.gitconfig -> $HOME/.gitconfig

• The nvim/.config folder is going to be symlinked to the $HOME/.config directory.

  • But because the $HOME/.config directory already exists, the contents of the nvim/.config folder are going to be symlinked inside the $HOME/.config directory. nvim/.config/nvim -> $HOME/.config/nvim

• There is no locations.ini in the ~/.dotfiles directory, so the remaining .gitignore and .gitmodules files are going to be symlinked to the $HOME directory.

  • .gitignore -> $HOME/.gitignore

  • .gitmodules -> $HOME/.gitmodules

To stow your Dotfiles, run the following command:

operandum stow -f

IMPORTANT: -f (force) is a recommended flag! Otherwise, the stowing process will stop if the stowing-end-path is a symlink (i.e. a symlink exists)!

Running Tasks

Tasks are a very powerful feature of operandum, featuring variables, built-in functions, and more.

Your Tasks folder's name is tasks by default. If you changed it, you can see its name in operandum.ini configuration file.

The tasks are defined in separate YAML files (e.g., task1.yml, task2.yml, etc.) in the Tasks folder.

Example

Because the Tasks and their compositon is a bit more complex, there is a separate Task Documentation.
Here is also the documentation for Task Configuration and Built-in Functions - they both can be found in the Task Documentation.

Commands

Command	Usage	Description
decrypt	operandum decrypt <filename>	AES-256-CBC decryption of a file
deinit	operandum deinit	Removes operandum and its config file in the current directory
encrypt	operandum encrypt <filename>	AES-256-CBC encryption of a file
execute	operandum execute <task-name>	Execute a task from the Tasks
help	operandum help	Shows a help message for operandum commands
init	operandum init	Initializes operandum and its config file in the current directory
reinit	operandum reinit	Reinitializes operandum in the current directory
stow	operandum stow -f	Stows (symlinks) Dotfiles to their respective stow directories More simply, this commands puts your Dotfiles in their places
update	operandum update	(Git) pull Dotfiles from the remote repository

Feedback and Contributing

Errors and suggestions can be reported in the Issues section of the repository.

If you want to contribute to the project, you can fork the repository and create a pull request.

Contributions to documentation are also welcome.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.