Dotman: My Personal Dotfiles Manager

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It was originally named dotshadow, since I wanted to try some different approaches to manage dotfiles… but those ideas didn’t really work out.

But hey, here it is — my own take on a dotfile manager, now called Dotman.

Dotman is highly inspired by GNU Stow. But it works in reverse — and maybe even better (I hope).

What's working so far

This is an early release, so Dotman is still fresh and evolving. Things might break, and it definitely needs more testing and refinement.

Implemented

• init - initialize dotman stores
• track <file> - copy a file into the store and replace it with symlink
• restore <file|all> - restore a broken/missing link

Coming Soon

• sync - track file hashes and detect changes
• status - show which files are dirty, missing or broken
• untrack - undo tracking (optionally for restoring file)

How to use

Dotman is designed to be simple and intuitive — no reverse folder magic or clunky layout rules like GNU Stow. Just track files in-place and let Dotman do the rest.

1. Init

   dotman init

   Creates a .dotfiles/ store in your home directory.

2. Track a file

   dotman track ~/Desktop/test.md

   What it does:

   1. Copies the file to .dotfiles/Desktop/test.md
   2. Replaces the original with a symlink
   3. Stores a mapping in .dotfiles/index.json

   So now:

   ~/Desktop/test.md → ~/.dotfiles/Desktop/test.md

3. Restore a file

   Let’s say you deleted a file (but still have it in your dotman store):

   dotman restore ~/Desktop/test.md

   Or restore everything at once:

   dotman restore --all

   This will re-create the symlinks using whatever is stored in .dotfiles/index.json.

Installation

Download the latest binary from the Releases page.

chmod +x dotman
mv dotman /usr/local/bin

Philosophy

Dotman does not reverse your folder structure.

You track files from where they are (usually in $HOME), and Dotman keeps a copy of them in .dotfiles/. It handles linking, indexing, and (soon) syncing — while staying out of your way.

No weirdness. No reverse symlinks. No need to move all your dotfiles into one mega repo manually.

Contributing

This project is still evolving, and any feedback, ideas, or issues are very welcome.

Feel free to open an issue or just yell at me nicely.

Credits

• Golang
• Urfavecli

Made with love and a lot of ln -s by me.