Dotter: Dotfile manager and templater written in Rust
19 comments
·September 10, 2025jzelinskie
loloquwowndueo
I use chezmoi, and I didn’t have to write a 50-line script - just install chezmoi on a new machine, run a command pointing it to a git repo, and up pop all the dot files and configs I need to have a consistent environment everywhere.
Chezmoi also handles variations in config files for personal vs. Work machines, or even differences between machines themselves.
I agree it’s not a tremendous lift to write a bespoke solution for this (and I did so in the past) but at some point it becomes lower-effort to use something off the shelf.
pentracchiano
Why is "written in Rust" as important as what the software is about? I noticed this tendency of specifying when something is written in Rust.
Should it be an indicator of better stability? Or performance? And if so, am I interested in the performance of a dotfile tool?
Genuinely curious.
turtlebits
Easy to deploy, usually single static binaries. Same goes with Golang projects. Polar opposite of java (which I'll totally ignore).
tonymet
it's the "pronouns in bio" of programming
tracker1
I have a backup/restore set of scripts that copies my dot files over as well as a few directories as a whole via rsync.
My only big issue is how big ~/.config/ gets as a directory compared to how much I really want to keep/need in terms of a fresh setup. Similar for my ~/src/ directory, with all the ./.git/ files. I kind of wish there were a "smarter" backup/restore tool that could handle a few of these things better than ham-fisting and rsyncing all the things.. I was more selective in my restore when configuring my new computer earlier in the year.
skydhash
Try Stow. You can create packages for your stuff and symlink the files as needed. I have packages like git, shell, mail,…
tonymet
git bare repo handles dotfiles better than any bespoke platform
1. git is already there and familiar
2. sync dotfiles over ssh . no internet access or separate credentials needed (for github, s3 etc)
3. handles merge conflicts
4. easily push & pull subdirectories into /etc , /usr/local or wherever else you need configuration using git subtree.
git bare repo works for tracking files anywhere on the FS as well. (check debian etckeeper for automating that)
phren0logy
Now that 20225 has become “The Year of the Terminal”(R), I have been looking at how managing my dot files in a more coherent way. I was thinking straight up git vs stow, but I should would be very interested in comparisons from those who have used this tool.
daedalus_j
Chezmoi is what you want.
I haven't looked at this one yet, but until someone compares it to Chezmoi and points out where it's better I'm not even looking attention I fear. Chezmoi is just that good.
announcer4614
For the sake of answering the parent question with regard to Chezmoi specifically: Chezmoi is a very comprehensive dotfiles manager. It can do a lot of things. More than any other I'm aware of.
More does not necessarily equal better, though. I think that's a matter of personal preference. I tried Chezmoi for a while and ultimately decided it was just a lot more levers at my disposal than I really wanted to even think about.
Dotter, by contrast, is a lot more minimal. Dotter is little more than a symlink manager plus templating engine plus config files to declare what machines need what config.
Chezmoi is all that, and does a lot more: encryption/decryption (even has password manager integrations), automatic push/pull. It's also designed so that you can add or manage files regardless of what your current working directory is (via commands like `chezmoi edit/add`).
In my case, after deciding I wanted to go for the minimal end of things, I almost went for GNU Stow however, I wanted templating functionality and I liked dotter's "packages" system for defining what files a given computer needs.
And very much a personal bias here: I found the learning curve of Chezmoi templates not great. I'm also not a big fan of the fact that Chezmoi relies on you naming your source files in particular ways in order to determine what the target file permissions should be.
Shebanator
Wait until you get a load of nix's home manager!
gaweringo
I found it quite useful. My main use case for it is managing the same dotfiles for Windows and Linux. Specifically that neovim uses different folders and I can set that per OS in dotter.
It also allows for including our not including a config based on an executable being available which can be useful. It requires some configuration, depending on how many of its features you use but I think it's worth it.
phren0logy
Thanks. I’m between Omarchy and MacOS mostly, but sometimes Windows, too. Seems worth putting some time into it.
defraudbah
I wish it had more examples or some basic documentation website, it looks interesting cuz i have a lot of context switching through all my tools.
I've seen projects like this for years and I still have the genuinely honest question: what are people doing that managing their dotfiles is significant problem for them?
I've managed my dotfiles (12 different configuration files all compatible with cygwin, wsl, linux, macOS) for the past decade in a git repo with a 50 LOC shell script that creates symlinks for me in an intelligent way. What am I missing?