Keep your application settings in sync.
⚠️ Mackup does not work correctly in Macos Sonoma, since it does not support symlinked files for preferences. Running this code will destroy all user preferences without a means for recovery. For more information, see issues #1924 and 2035.
If you have Dropbox installed and want to use it to save your config files, that's super easy.
On macOS, if you want an easy install, you can install Homebrew and do:
# Install Mackup
brew install mackup
# Launch it and back up your files
mackup backupIf not running macOS, or you don't like Homebrew, you can use pip.
Note: The below command will check if a previous version of Mackup is already installed on your system. If this is the case, it will be upgraded to the latest version.
# Install Mackup with PIP
pip install --upgrade mackup
# Launch it and back up your files
mackup backupOn Ubuntu, pip will install to the current user's home directory rather than system-wide. Because of this, when installing pip on Ubuntu you will need to run
pip installwith the--systemflag as well (on other platforms this is not needed)
You're all set and constantly backed up from now on.
Next, on any new workstation, do:
# Install Mackup
brew install mackup
# Launch it and restore your files
mackup restoreDone!
You can find more detailed instructions in INSTALL.md.
mackup backup
Backup your application settings.
mackup restore
Restore your application settings on a newly installed workstation.
mackup uninstall
Copy back any synced config file to its original place.
mackup list
Display the list of applications supported by Mackup.
mackup -h
Get some help, obviously...
By only tracking pure configuration files, it keeps the crap out of your freshly new installed workstation (no cache, temporary and locally specific files are transfered).
Mackup makes setting up the environment easy and simple, saving time for your family, great ideas, and all the cool stuff you like.
Let's take git as an example. Your settings for git are saved in your home
folder, in the .gitconfig file.
If you have Dropbox, these things happen when you launch mackup backup:
cp ~/.gitconfig ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfigrm ~/.gitconfigln -s ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfig ~/.gitconfigNow your git config is always backed up and up to date on all your workstations.
When you launch mackup restore, here's what it's really doing:
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfig ~/.gitconfigThat's it, you got your git config setup on your new workstation.
mackup does the same for any supported application.
You can revert all your files to their original state.
# Just run this
mackup uninstallThis will remove the symlinks and copy back the files from the Mackup folder in Dropbox to their original places in your home. The Mackup folder and the files in it stay put, so that any other computer also running Mackup is unaffected.
See the README file in the doc directory for more info.
We can with your help ;)
Have an application that shouldn't be generally supported but that you use? Or a cool file you want to sync?
~/.mackup directory to sync an application or any file or directoryYesterday, I had a talk with Zach Zaro, complaining about the pain it is to reconfigure our Macbook each time we get a new one or install from scratch. That's a talk we have already had months ago.
I change my workstation every X months. Each time I either lose my apps' configurations, or I just waste a bunch of hours getting setup like I was on my old box. I also spend a lot of time reconfiguring the same stuff again on all my workstations (home, work).
Boring...
Some people tried to solve the problem on the application layer, like Github's Boxen, but it solves a different problem, from my point of view. I don't spend a lot of time installing or downloading stuff. I spend time configuring it.
For years, I've used a personal shell script that was copying known config files into Subversion, Git or Dropbox, and linked them into my home. But I felt a lot of us had the same problem: Making a more generic tool could help others and I could get help from others to support more apps in the tool.
So here comes Mackup, the little tool that will sync all your application configs to Dropbox (or Google Drive, or anything).
And it's GPL, of course.
Mackup is just a portmanteau of Mac and Backup. It is simple, short, and easy to remember, and it corresponds with the whole idea of Mackup: the simpler – the better! (And I suck at naming stuff, but who doesn't.)
In the doc directory.