opendotsync

Cross-machine dotfile synchronization with intelligent merge strategies.

Features

• Versioned snapshots — every push creates a .tar.zst snapshot with a version number
• Three merge strategies — last-write-wins (none), history-aware (history), additive (union)
• Shell history merging — bash, zsh, and fish history merged by timestamp with 60s dedup window
• Age encryption — optional end-to-end encryption with age x25519 keys
• Multiple profiles — separate sync namespaces per machine or context
• Automatic sync — systemd timer (Linux) or launchd plist (macOS) for hands-free sync
• Conflict management — conflicts stashed locally, resolved at your leisure

Install

cargo install --path .

Quick start

# Initialize with a local store
opendotsync init --backend local --path ~/.opendotsync-store

# Edit the paths list
opendotsync paths edit

# Push your dotfiles
opendotsync push --message "initial"

# On another machine: pull and merge
opendotsync pull

# Keep both machines in sync automatically
opendotsync sync

Commands

Command	Description
init	Initialize config, paths list, and first snapshot
push	Create snapshot and upload (auto-pulls first if the remote is ahead; --no-auto-pull to disable)
pull	Download latest snapshot and merge
sync	Pull → merge → push in one step (with retry)
status	Show local version, remote version, and changed files
diff	Show files changed since last snapshot (--remote to diff vs remote)
log	Show snapshot history
restore <version>	Restore files from a specific snapshot
du	Show projected snapshot size breakdown
paths list|edit|add|remove	Manage the allowlist (tracked paths)
paths exclude add|remove|list	Manage the blacklist (patterns never synced)
paths check <file>	Show whether a path would be synced, and why
conflicts list|show|accept-local|accept-remote	Manage merge conflicts
profiles list|create|switch|merge	Manage sync profiles
config show|edit	View or edit configuration
encrypt-key generate|export	Manage age encryption keys
install-timer	Install systemd/launchd timer for automatic sync

Configuration

~/.config/opendotsync/config.yaml:

backend:
  type: local
  path: /home/user/.opendotsync-store
profile: default
encryption:
  enabled: false
  # identity: /home/user/.config/opendotsync/identity.age

Paths list

~/.config/opendotsync/paths.yaml:

include:
  - ".bashrc"
  - ".gitconfig"
  - ".bash_history": history   # history-aware merge
  - ".gitignore": union         # additive merge

exclude:
  - ".ssh/id_*"
  - ".aws/credentials"
  - "*.secret"

Allowlist (include) gates what gets collected; blacklist (exclude) subtracts from it — a blacklist match always wins, even inside an allowlisted directory. Manage both from the CLI without hand-editing the file:

opendotsync paths add ".myconfig"          # allowlist an extra file
opendotsync paths exclude add "*.log"       # blacklist a pattern
opendotsync paths check ".ssh/id_rsa"       # explain the sync decision for a path

Merge strategies

• none — last-write-wins with 3-way conflict detection
• history — merges shell history by timestamp; deduplicates within 60 seconds
• union — additive line merge; lines present in either side are kept

See docs/merge-algorithm.md for details.

Encryption

opendotsync encrypt-key generate
opendotsync encrypt-key export

Enable in config.yaml:

encryption:
  enabled: true
  identity: /home/user/.config/opendotsync/identity.age

Automatic sync

opendotsync install-timer            # enable (every 15 min)
opendotsync install-timer --uninstall

License

MIT — see LICENSE.