Repo File Sync

A tool to save and restore ignored files inside a Git repositories, based on defined Glob-patterns.

Setup

Download the latest release and add the executable to your PATH.

Local only

This will save the files local only, without the need of a remote repository.

1. Run repo-file-sync init.
2. Optionally provide a directory on the machine to store the Database-Repository, however the default one is recommended.
3. Select y when asked to set up local only
4. Follow the instructions to finish the setup.

Remote repository

This will save the files to a remote repository to sync them between multiple devices.

1. Run repo-file-sync init and provide a directory to store the Database-Repository.
2. Optionally provide a directory on the machine to store the Database-Repository, however the default one is recommended.
3. Select n when asked to set up local only
4. Provide the URL of the remote repository to store the IDE configurations
   • For that, set up a new repository on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, etc.
   • Copy the URL of the repository and paste it into the prompt
5. Follow the instructions to finish the setup.

Usage

All following commands support the --dir <directory> / -d <directory> flag to search and save/restore files in a specific directory. If no directory is specified, the current directory is used.

Save files

1. Run repo-file-sync save to crawl the directory recursively and save all matching files inside the Database-Repository.

Restore files

1. Run repo-file-sync restore to search the directory recursively and restore all files from the Database-Repository.

Dry run / discover

1. Run repo-file-sync discover to see which files would be saved or restored.

Included / excluded files

The tool uses a set of global include/exclude patterns to determine which files to save and restore. Additionally, every repository can have its own include/exclude patterns.

Included files

Repo File Sync was originally designed to save and restore IDE configurations, so it includes by default the following patterns:

• Visual Studio Code (**/.vscode/**)
• JetBrains IDEs (**/.idea/**)

Adding include patterns

1. Run repo-file-sync pattern include add <pattern-1>, <pattern-2>, ... to add one or more Glob-patterns to match files from the repository root.

Removing include patterns

1. Run repo-file-sync pattern include remove <pattern-1>, <pattern-2>, ... to remove one or more Glob-patterns.

To add or remove a global include pattern, use the --global/-g flag.

Excluded files

The following patterns are excluded by default, to prevent matching files in some ignored folders:

• Node modules (**/node_modules/**)
• Virtual environments (**/venv/**, **/.venv/**)

Exclude patterns are evaluated after include patterns, so a file matching an exclude pattern will always be excluded, even if it matches an include pattern.

Adding exclude patterns

1. Run repo-file-sync pattern exclude add <pattern-1>, <pattern-2>, ... to add one or more Glob-patterns to exclude files from the repository root.

Removing exclude patterns

1. Run repo-file-sync pattern exclude remove <pattern-1>, <pattern-2>, ... to remove one or more Glob-patterns.

To add or remove a global exclude pattern, use the --global/-g flag.

Excluded folders when searching for repositories

The tool excludes the following folders when discovering repositories:

• Node modules (node_modules)
• Virtual environments (venv, .venv)

This has no impact on the saved and restored files. Use the include and exclude patterns to define which files to save and restore.