wstow :- A stow wrapper

What ?

wstow is a wrapper around GNU stow that makes it easier to make symlinks from multiple sources to multiple targets easily.

Why ?

GNU stow is a symlink maker and manager that makes multiple symlinks easier. However, it still lacks some capabilites that makes it difficult to symlink multiple distinct package groups. Take a look at following example :
[Here assumed current working directory is home ( ~ or /home/<username>) and dotfiles is at ~/path/to/dotfiles ]

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• To make symlinks to multiple folders under your config directory, eg : vifm, nvim, bat, zsh with stow

1. got to .config directory ( cd ~/.config )
2. Create vifm directory ( mkdir vifm )
3. Go to vifm directory ( cd vifm )
4. Use stow to symlink ( stow -v -t ./ -d ../path/to/dotfiles/.config -S vifm )
5. go back to .config directory ( cd .. )
6. Repeat from step 2 replacing 'vifm' with any other package name ( like nvim, zsh , alacritty)

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• To make symlinks to multiple folders under your config directory, eg : vifm, nvim, bat, zsh with wstow

1. wstow file ../path/to/dotfiles/.config ./ vifm alacritty zsh bat ( The syntax is like this :- wstow mode SOURCE_DIR TARGET_PARENT_DIR PACKAGE_NAMES )

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Dependencies

1. Stow
2. find for ignore and fignore modes

Install

Just copy the script to anywhere in your PATH ( echo $PATH ). Make sure the script is executable ( chmod +x wstow )

Usage

The syntax for wstow is :- wstow mode SOURCE_DIR TARGET_PARENT_DIR PACKAGE_NAMES

1. mode

• dry :- Do not make any changes. Just do dry-run or simulate what the changes will be made with file mode

• file :- For all the PACKAGE1, PACKAGE2,... from PACKAGE_NAMES make symlinks for all files from SOURCE_DIR/PACKAGE1,SOURCE_DIR/PACKAGE2,... inside the folder TARGET_PARENT_DIR/PACKAGE1, TARGET_PARENT_DIR/PACKAGE2,.. till all the PACKAGE_NAMES. Recurse into subdirectories in PACKAGE1, PACKAGE2,... and create symlinks. The subdirectories will also be created (stow --no-folding feature).

• folder :- For all the PACKAGE1, PACKAGE2,... from PACKAGE_NAMES make symlinks for files and folder from SOURCE_DIR/PACKAGE1,SOURCE_DIR/PACKAGE2,... inside the folder TARGET_PARENT_DIR/PACKAGE1, TARGET_PARENT_DIR/PACKAGE2,.. till all the PACKAGE_NAMES. Symlinks for first level subdirectories are created without recursing like file mode.
  (Note ❗ :- Files/folders deleted inside a symlinked folder will delete original source. To remove a symlinked folder, delete the symlinked folder. Deleting the contents inside will delete from original source.)

• ignore :- Similar to file mode except all packages from SOURCE_DIR will be used except for those provided as PACKAGE_NAMES.

• fignore :- Similar to folder mode except all packages from SOURCE_DIR will be used except for those provided as PACKAGE_NAMES.

• restow :- Similar to folder mode except re-stow or repair symlinks

• delete :- Similar to folder mode except delete symlinks. ( When used to remove symlinks from file mode, empty subdirectories would remain.) ###End