Feedback Issue: Dotfiles Support

[mikenikles]

Objective

This issue is to track feedback related to Dotfiles Support.

See related roadmap item [21]

[trumbitta]

https://github.com/trumbitta/dotfiles didn't 100% work for me

A README.md was indeed symlinked, but my customized .gitconfig wasn't

I understand this is due to the file already existing in the workspace.
Here's my reply to a suggested workaround (merging via install script):

thanks but I'm hesitant to do that in an install script, because I need to use this same repo in my work machine and in my personal machine, where I have already an "inversion of control" situation with:

[include]
       path = ~/.gitconfig-local

I use .gitconfig-local to make git merge its own configurations when needed, without my intervention with a script

I'm going to try this updated install script snippet by @axonasif 🙏

#!/usr/bin/env bash

set -eu;

if test ! -e /ide/bin/gp-code || test ! -v GITPOD_REPO_ROOT; then {
    printf 'error: This script is meant to be run on Gitpod, quiting...\n' && exit 1;
} fi

_source_dir="$(readlink -f "$0")" && _source_dir="${_source_dir%/*}";
printf '%s\n' "$(< "$_source_dir/.gitconfig")" >> $HOME/.gitconfig

[axonasif]

A user wished to have a feature that would allow them set a default .gitpod.yml and Dockerfile(if specified in .gitpod.yml) #6275. Someone surely can script up something on install.sh from their dotfiles repo to automatically copy these files but that would require the user to create a new workspace to see the changes. I think it will be nice if somehow we could supply custom .gitpod.yml and Dockerfile on condition from our dotfiles repo and that Gitpod would pick them up before workspace initialization.

cc @csweichel

[filiptronicek]

Linking #7639 because it is related to dotfiles 🙂.

[axonasif]

Cross-linking #7592 here.

[draxaris1010]

Maybe it would be handy for setup scripts to clone submods if the .dotfiles dir is not owned by root

[parched]

How does this work with VS Code User settings? My settings in ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json don't seem to be applied. The User settings that gitpod lets you edit appears to be some virtual file?

[axonasif]

How does this work with VS Code User settings? My settings in ~/.config/Code/User/settings.json don't seem to be applied. The User settings that gitpod lets you edit appears to be some virtual file?

Yes, it's stored on your browser.

[parched]

Ok, would it be possible to make gitpod use the file in .config instead if it's present? Or, as a workaround, is there a way to write to the in browser file, so I can sync it in the install script?

[weitzman]

FYI I wasnt getting my dotfiles repo but the logs gave a clue at ~/.dotfiles.log. I hadnt given Gitpod access to my private repos at Github. I fixed that and it now works as documented. Thanks for this feature.

[t8d7]

Another small feature request: automatic execution of .install.sh and other variants prepended with the .

Reason being: this being dotfiles, I try to keep everything in this repo.. a dotfile. (Feels cleaner for me, but that's subjective).

[axonasif]

Another small feature request: automatic execution of .install.sh and other variants prepended with the .

Reason being: this being dotfiles, I try to keep everything in this repo.. a dotfile. (Feels cleaner for me, but that's subjective).

You can always call your other scripts from your main install.sh.