dotfile_gitsync

sync your dotfile with github

using systemd --user service/timer and a simple script to sync your dotfiles with github (or other git).

to avoid cleartext token in the script we simply use ssh to sync with GitHub.

This will update the code, creating a tag for each run on the remote repo and cleans up old tags.

scriptfile:

github-dotfiles --> main script for handling sync to github

github-tagclean --> removes older tags

copy_script ---> to add your copy scriptlets for the dotfiles you want to sync

systemd files:

github-dotfile.service

github-dotfile.timer

1. create a new repo at your github, and indeed, set it to private.

2. set it up locally:

git clone https://github.org/username/reponame.git
cd dotfile_gitsync
mkdir -p $HOME/.config/systemd/user/
cp -a github-dotfile.service github-dotfile.timer $HOME/.config/systemd/user/
mkdir $HOME/.dotfiles
cp -a github-dotfiles copy_script github-tagclean $HOME/.dotfiles/
cd $HOME/.dotfiles

Configure SSH to use this key for GitHub:

Generate an SSH key (if you don’t have one)

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your_email-used-on-github" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github.pub and copy your key.

Edit ~/.ssh/config

Host github.com
    User git
    HostName github.com
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github
    IdentitiesOnly yes

Make sure your local repo uses the SSH URL:

git remote set-url origin git@github.com:username.reponame.git

3. edit configs:

edit github-dotfiles to your needs:

github-dotfile.timer --> set [Timer] to fit your needs default is:

OnStartupSec=30sec
OnCalendar=00/3:00
Persistent=true

copy_script --> edit to your needs for files you want to sync.

github-tagclean --> edit to add username and may change tags to keep.

4. enable timer to automate running the sync:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable --now github-dotfile.timer