dotdrop/docs/config/config-variables.md

Config variables

• Config available variables
  • Variables entry
  • Profile variables
  • Config variables in templates
  • Interpreted variables entry

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Available variables

Multiple variables can be used within the config file to parametrize following elements of the config:

• dotfiles src and dst paths (see Dynamic dotfile paths)
• external path specifications
  • import_variables
  • import_actions
  • import_configs
  • profiles's import

actions and transformations also support the use of variables but those are resolved when the action/transformation is executed (see Dynamic actions, Dynamic transformations and Templating).

Following variables are available in the config files:

• variables defined in the config
• interpreted variables defined in the config
• profile variables defined in the config
• environment variables: {{@@ env['MY_VAR'] @@}}
• dotdrop header: {{@@ header() @@}} (see Dotdrop header)

As well as all template methods (see Available methods)

Variables entry

Variables defined in the variables entry are made available within the config file.

Config variables are recursively evaluated what means that a config like the below

variables:
  var1: "var1"
  var2: "{{@@ var1 @@}} var2"
  var3: "{{@@ var2 @@}} var3"
  var4: "{{@@ dvar4 @@}}"
dynvariables:
  dvar1: "echo dvar1"
  dvar2: "{{@@ dvar1 @@}} dvar2"
  dvar3: "{{@@ dvar2 @@}} dvar3"
  dvar4: "echo {{@@ var3 @@}}"

will result in the following available variables:

• var1: var1
• var2: var1 var2
• var3: var1 var2 var3
• var4: echo var1 var2 var3
• dvar1: dvar1
• dvar2: dvar1 dvar2
• dvar3: dvar1 dvar2 dvar3
• dvar4: var1 var2 var3

Profile variables

Profile variables will take precedence over globally defined variables. This means that you could do something like this:

variables:
  git_email: home@email.com
dotfiles:
  f_gitconfig:
    dst: ~/.gitconfig
    src: gitconfig
profiles:
  work:
    dotfiles:
    - f_gitconfig
    variables:
      git_email: work@email.com
  private:
    dotfiles:
    - f_gitconfig

Config variables in templates

variables and dynvariables are also made available in templates (see Template variables).

Variables in the config file

variables:
  var1: some variable content
  var2: some other content

Can be used in any templates like this

var1 value is: {{@@ var1 @@}}

Interpreted variables entry

It is also possible to have dynamic variables in the sense that their content will be interpreted by the shell before being substituted.

These need to be defined in the config file under the entry dynvariables.

For example:

dynvariables:
  dvar1: head -1 /proc/meminfo
  dvar2: "echo 'this is some test' | rev | tr ' ' ','"
  dvar3: /tmp/my_shell_script.sh
  user: "echo $USER"
  config_file: test -f "{{@@ user_config @@}}" && echo "{{@@ user_config @@}}" || echo "{{@@ dfl_config @@}}"
variables:
  user_config: "profile_{{@@ user @@}}_uid.yaml"
  dfl_config: "profile_default.yaml"

They have the same properties as Variables.