Soft sync

A system for syncing software and their settings. Mainly aimed towards linux systems.

In essence this can be seen as private package manager wrapper that will install software for you. It wraps and extends existing package managers by also making sure that the correct settings are installed.

The managed settings can be configured by multiple software configurations. i.e. a file can be extended by another software if desired.

Example of config can be found here https://github.com/munHunger/soft-sync-data

Installing

Install by running

npm install -g soft-sync

Then follow create your own configuration as described below (use the github example as a base if needed)

Config

Config is broken into 2 different types, Software and System

First time running soft-sync you will be prompted for a directory for your settings. By default this should be ~/.config/soft-sync/data

This folder is your config directory.

System

System is in essence a list of desired and installed applications. ex

name: arch laptop
manager:
  - PACMAN
  - AURUTILS
wanted:
  - aurutils
  - i3
  - urxvt
installed:
  - aurutils
  - urxvt

It specifies what package manager to wrap and what should be installed.

Currently only PACMAN and AURUTILS are tested and supported.

Based on the config soft-sync will install i3 as it is missing from the installed list.

Worth mentioning that uninstalling software is not yet supported. i.e. removing from wanted will not have any effect other than the software no longer being managed.

The system is configured by adding a .yml file in your config directory. It can then be synced by running soft-sync sync <name> where <name> is the name of the .yml file without it's file ending

Software

Software can be configured in multiple ways. In their most basic form they only specify what packages to use.

name: "OpenSCAD"
packages:
  - name: "openscad"
    alternatives:
      - name: "openscad"
        manager: PACMAN

They can also include configuration if needed, by adding this to the root

settings:
  - path: ~/.config/i3/config
    content: |-
      set $mod Mod4
      font pango:monospace 8
      floating_modifier $mod

If the settings file is to be modified by other software you can specify it like this

settings:
  - path: ~/.config/i3/config
    content: |-
      bindsym $mod+Return exec urxvt
    position:
      type: END
    when:
      installed:
        - i3

The setting will then be added to end of the file assuming that the dependency i3 is in the wanted list.

If you have software that is more complex and not managed by a package manager. For example if you need to compile from scratch or simply just run a script to install you can do so by specifying an install object

install:
  - |-
    cd /tmp
    git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/aurutils.git
    cd aurutils
    chown -R munhunger ./
    makepkg -sir --noconfirm --skippgpcheck

Software files should be placed under a software folder in your configuration directory. ex software/social/discord.yml

Theming

If desired you can write a theme for your system by specifying a theme name in the root System configuration.

i.e. like this

name: arch laptop
theme: darkLeaf
manager:
  - PACMAN
wanted:
  - aurutils
  - i3

Then you need to create a folder named theme in your configuration folder and a theme file in it, ex theme/darkLeaf.yml

The theme config is a yml file that defines variables that can be used in settings. For example if your theme file looks like this

window:
  border: "#000000"
  foreground: "#00FF00"
bar:
  bg: "#FFFFFF"

You can use these variables in your Software settings. ex

settings:
  - path: ~/.config/polybar/config
    content: |-
      foreground: {:bar.bg}

settings:
  - path: ~/.config/i3/config
    content: |-
      color: {:window.border}