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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

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Do dotfile management tools such as GNU Stow gracefully handle apps with dynamic directory names? (e.g. Firefox profile directories) (lemmy.ml)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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Okay, so I've been reading about dotfile management apps such as GNU Stow, and I love the idea. I have a good grasp on how it works. Seems like it should work flawlessly for corralling all my dotfiles into one folder so I can easily clone them across machines. Makes sense for apps whose config folders and files are named something static like ~/.config/appname/settings.conf.

That said, can somebody help me understand the cloning/syncing workflow for apps that generate folders and/or files with dynamic/random/inconsistent names? For example, I'm thinking of Firefox, which creates folders with seemingly random strings for each profile.

Do I just need to clone my Firefox profiles before I launch Firefox for the first time on a new machine? Can I configure GNU Stow w/ something like *.Profile for the top level folder name? Am I doomed to manually syncing my Firefox settings, or is there some other trick for handling these dynamically named configs that I haven't come across in the tutorials yet? This little cliff hanger is pretty much the last thing stopping me from installing GNU Stow at this point. Thank you!

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[–] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

You mean write a script with something like find followed by stow --target=/path/to/profile/folder firefox?

[–] giddy@quokk.au 1 points 2 days ago

I just look for the folder with -release on the end

    PROFPATH=$(grep 'Path=' $HOME/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/.mozilla/firefox/profiles.ini | sed s/^Path=// | grep release)

[–] FauxLiving@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

Yeah, exactly. You could glob with find to locate the directory, store the path in a variable and then pass that to stow.

I'm not sure what you have to do to make Firefox acknowledge the profile, but I believe it simply enumerates all of the folders in the directory and displays all that are valid (but definitely double check on that first).