unisync

Mackup inspired tool to sync application settings, powered by unison

• unisync
  • What it is
  • How is this different from mackup?
    • Why?
  • Install
  • Usage
  • Have unisync run automatically in the background
  • How to add support for new apps?
  • How to re-generate config files from mackup?
  • Troubleshooting & Caveats
  • Credits

What it is

unisync helps you keep your application settings (plists, config folders, licenses) synchronized across machines. It does this by using unison to diff files, then copies them into a synced folder of your choice

How is this different from mackup?

unisync does not use symlinks like mackup. So instead of symlinking things into Dropbox/iCloud, unisync uses unison for diffing and copies the actual files.

Hint: unisync actually embeds the entire mackup app library (with exception of xdg_configuration_files for now), so any app that works with mackup should also work with unisync.

Why?

I like unison and ran into issues where symlinks randomly broke without me noticing it. I wanted the file content to be identical no matter where it is, including the actual application settings folder.

The sync folder in the cloud acts as a backup and source for diffing, but the apps would continue to work as is if those were deleted.

Install

Install unison and make sure it's in your path. On mac you can do:

brew install unison

Then

go install github.com/dvcrn/unisync@latest

Create a config file in ~/.config/unisync/unisync.yaml:

targetPath: ~/.config/appconfigsync
preferDirection: target
apps:
  - dash
  - raycast

• preferDirection specifies which direction should get picked on conflict. Set it to target to have the targetPath take precedence (aka, your dropbox folder). Set it to local to say that your local apps should take prededence and override the sync store. Defaults to target

Usage

Commands:
  sync - run sync between all enabled apps
  init-from-target - run/force initial sync, targetPath -> appPath
  init-from-local - run/force initial sync, local -> targetPath
  list - list available apps
  info <appname> - show details of an app

LaunchAgent management
  install-agent - installs LaunchAgent to automatically run in the background
  remove-agent - unload and remove agent

The initial sync options force one way. For example if you want your local configuration to be overwritten on initial sync with whatever you have in your storage folder, run init-from-target

Have unisync run automatically in the background

unisync comes with a LaunchAgent you can install, that will run unisync every 10 minutes:

unisync install-agent

This will add and load a new LaunchAgent config into Library/LaunchAgents/sh.d.unisync.plist

How to add support for new apps?

Check out apps/ in this repository. Apps are simple yaml files that explain what has to be copied:

name: Raycast
friendlyName: raycast
files:
  - basePath: ~/Library/Preferences/
    includedFiles:
      - com.raycast.macos.plist
    ignoredFiles:
      - Name somethingToIgnore.plist

• basePath is the path that contains the files to sync. It can be ~/Library/Preferences/ when the file in question is just a preferences file, but also something like ~/Library/Application Support/Dash
• includedFiles are all files within basePath to process
• ignoredFiles is the opposite of includedFiles - stuff you don't want to get processed. Has to be Name, Path, BelowPath or Regex

How to re-generate config files from mackup?

There is a handy make command that you can use, that'll update the git submodule, then run helper script

make apps/mackup

Troubleshooting & Caveats

• Apps that are currently running will override the config files usually when they're quit
• Mackup apps haven't been thorougly tested yet. Stuff could not working as intended

Credits

A huge chunk of the apps is generated off the mackup app library, which in turn is thanks to a huge number of contributors. Thanks to all of you!