How do you guys quickly sync your settings (especially bash aliases and ssh keys) across your machines?

Ideally i want a simple script to run on every new server I work with. Any suggestions?

    •  some_guy   ( @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
      1•9 months ago

      I also have multiple versions of by bash_profile with syntax specific to the OS. It checks if we’re on MacOS or Linux with a kernel check and then reads the appropriate ancillary bash_profile for that platform. Anything that can live in the main bash_profile with the same command on both platforms lives there and anything that needs to be system-specific is in the other one.

      I have all my important functions as individual files that get loaded with the following:

      function loadfuncs() {
	local funcdir="$HOME/.dotfiles/functions/"
	[ -e "${funcdir}".DS_Store ] && rm "$HOME/.dotfiles/functions/.DS_Store"
	local n=0

	for i in "${funcdir}"*; do
		source "$(realpath $i)"
		n=$(( n + 1 ))
	done
}
loadfuncs
      •  Atemu   ( @Atemu@lemmy.ml ) 
        1•9 months ago

        Interesting way to go about it. Though when I’m at the point where I need differences between linux and darwin, I’m probably going to do that at the home-manager level.

        •  some_guy   ( @some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
          1•9 months ago

          Just for fun, here’s how I’m checking that (this was written in 2016 and may require adjusting as I haven’t been keeping up on Linux for a while):

          function oscheck() {
	if [[ "$(uname -s)" == 'Darwin' ]]; then

		# echo Darwin
		osType=Darwin
		return 0

	elif
		[[ "$(uname -s)" == 'Linux' ]]; then

		# echo Linux
		osType=Linux

		grep CentOS /etc/os-release > /dev/null
		if [[ "$?" == 0 ]]; then
		    # echo "CentOS"
		    export theDistro=CentOS
		    return 0
		else
			:
		fi

		grep Ubuntu /etc/os-release > /dev/null
		if [[ "$?" == 0 ]]; then
		    export theDistro=Ubuntu
		    return 0
		else
			:
			# echo "Not Ubuntu"
		fi

		printf "  %s\n" "Error: osType tested true for Linux, but did not find CentOS or Ubuntu." ""
		return 1

	else
		osType=Unknown
		return 1
	fi
}
oscheck
  •  restlessyet   ( @restlessyet@discuss.tchncs.de ) 
    12•9 months ago

    I’m surprised no one mentioned ansible yet. It’s meant for this (and more).

    By ssh keys I assume you’re talking about authorized_keys, not private keys. I agree with other posters that private keys should not be synced, just generate new ones and add them to the relevant servers authorized_keys with ansible.

    •  Toribor   ( @Toribor@corndog.social ) English
      2•9 months ago

      I use Ansible for this as well. It’s great. I encrypt secrets with Ansible vault and then use it to set keys, permissions, config files, etc. across my various workstations. Makes setup and troubleshooting a breeze.

  •  Pantherina   ( @Pantherina@feddit.de ) 
    7•9 months ago

    Syncthing. If you want flatpak, syncthingy.

    Its simply best, does all the annoying background things like webUI, machines, versioning, verifying etc. If you disable global discovery you can use it tough LAN only

  •  S410   ( @S410@kbin.social ) 
    7•9 months ago

    On my devices like PCs, laptops or phones, syncthing syncs all my .rc files, configs, keys, etc.

    For things like servers, routers, etc. I rely on OpenSSH’s ability to send over environmental variables to send my aliases and functions.
    On the remote I have
    [ -n "$SSH_CONNECTION" ] && eval "$(echo "$LC_RC" | { { base64 -d || openssl base64 -d; } | gzip -d; } 2>/dev/null)"
    in whatever is loaded when I connect (.bashrc, usually)
    On the local machine
    alias ssh="$([ -z "$SSH_CONNECTION" ] && echo 'LC_RC=$(gzip < ~/.rc | base64 -w 0)') ssh'

    That’s not the best way to do that by any means (it doesn’t work with dropbear, for example), but for cases like that I have other non-generic, one-off solutions.

    •  noUsernamesLef7   ( @noUsernamesLef7@infosec.pub ) 
      3•9 months ago

      I love this solution, I’ve been using it for years. I had previously just been using the home directory is a git repo approach, and it never quite felt natural to me and came with quite a few annoyances. Adding stow to the mix was exactly what I needed.

    •  pspinler   ( @pspinler@beehaw.org ) 
      1•9 months ago

      Ditto – I’ve been keeping a central to me git repo for my settings for years. Any new machine I’m on ‘git clone ; ./settings/setup.sh’, then my pull’d .profile does a git pull on login.

    •  macallik   ( @macallik@kbin.social ) 
      1•9 months ago

      That my solution. I have a ‘Sync’ folder on every device’s Home folder, and then I use some aliases to determine whether to grab the bash_aliases file or replace it:

      • alias dba=‘diff -s ~/.bash_aliases ~/Sync/.bash_aliases’ # compare files
      • alias s2ba=‘cp ~/Sync/.bash_aliases ~/’ # Push from Sync folder to current bash aliases
      • alias ba2s=‘cp ~/.bash_aliases ~/Sync/’ # Push from current bash aliases to Sync folder

      By far, the diff alias is the most used. It allows for a quick check on what is different between files w/o having to open them up

  •  tvcvt   ( @tvcvt@lemmy.ml ) 
    3•9 months ago

    I keep my dotfiles in a got repo and just do a git pull your update them. That could definitely be a cron job if you needed.

    SSH keys are a little trickier. I’d like to tell you I have a unique key for each of my desktop machines since that would be best practice, but that’s not the case. Instead I have a Syncthing shared folder. When I get around to cleaning that up, I’ll probably do just that and keep an authorize_keys and known_hosts file in git so I can pull them to needed hosts and a cron job to keep them updated.

  •  Coelacanthus   ( @Coelacanthus@lemmy.kde.social ) 
    2•9 months ago

    Use a git repo and stow tool. For updating, you only need run git pull (and stow if you create config for a new software). If you modify some config, just git add && git commit && git push.
    With this way, you can also record change history of your config.

  •  zhenbo_endle   ( @zhenbo_endle@lemmy.ca ) 
    2•9 months ago

    My solution is not ideal:

    I created a directory, called ~/config_sync. I create sym links for config files, like ~/.bashtc to ~/config_sync/bashrc

    However, I need to record the sym links I’ve created, and repeat this process on new machines