Profiles & packages

Profiles & packages

A profile is an ordered list of steps in manifests/profiles/<name>.yml.
homebot unpack runs the profile for this host (homebot.yml →
profiles.hosts, else profiles.default).

The three profiles today

description: What every machine gets, servers included

steps:
  - unlock
  - link

description: Daily driver (laptops and desktops)

include:
  - base

steps:
  - brew: "{os}/Brewfile"
  # Vendor repos (docker, tailscale, wezterm...) first, so apt can find their packages.
  - apt-repos: linux/apt-repos
    on: linux
  - apt: linux/apt.txt
    on: linux
  - flatpak: linux/flatpak.txt
    on: linux
  - fonts: [OpenDyslexicNerd]

description: Home server. Its lists live in manifests/server/.

include:
  - base

steps:
  # Vendor repos (docker, tailscale) first, so apt can find their packages.
  - apt-repos: server/apt-repos
    on: linux
  - apt: server/apt.txt
    on: linux

Each profile keeps its own package lists, and each machine’s exports write
only to its profile’s lists: the workstation’s under manifests/<os>/, the
server’s under manifests/server/.

Step syntax

include: [base]               # run base's steps first
steps:
  - link                      # action, no arguments
  - brew: "{os}/Brewfile"     # {os} {host} {arch} are filled in
  - apt: linux/apt.txt
    on: linux                 # skipped elsewhere
  - fonts: [A, B]             # a list becomes several arguments
  - run: ./scripts/thing.sh   # any shell, cwd = manifests/
    name: Set up thing        # label in the progress line

homebot unpack --dry-run      # print the steps, run nothing
homebot unpack --from 4       # resume after a failure (the error tells you N)
homebot actions               # list every action available

Actions

Add your own: drop manifests/actions/<name>.sh and use - name: args.
Same name as a built-in replaces it. First comment line is its summary in
homebot actions. Exit non-zero to stop the unpack. homebot action <name> [args] runs one by hand.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Enable systemd user services.   - services: [syncthing, ollama]
set -euo pipefail
for svc in "$@"; do systemctl --user enable --now "$svc"; done

Package lists are snapshots

manifests/{os}/Brewfile, linux/apt.txt, linux/flatpak.txt and
linux/apt-repos/ are written by homebot export, which the helper runs
about once a day on workstations. They always match what’s installed. To
change them, install or remove the package, then let the export (or
homebot export) catch up. An export that fails or prints nothing never
replaces the last good file.

Vendor apt repositories

linux/apt-repos/ is a copy of this machine’s third-party repositories:
the .list and .sources files from /etc/apt/sources.list.d, their signing
keys in keyrings/, and origin, the release codename they came from
(noble). The distribution’s own sources and anything commented out or
Enabled: no stay behind.

The apt-repos step puts them back before apt runs, with sudo:

• A repo already set up, under its own name or another file pointing at the
  same URL, is left alone.
• A repo whose file names the origin codename is skipped on a machine running
  another release (Docker’s noble repo on Debian trixie), and the step
  says so. Add that machine’s repo by hand; the next export records it.
• A key goes where the file’s signed-by says, unless one is already there.
• apt-get update runs once, only when something was added.

Add a repo the vendor’s way (their install instructions), and the next export
copies it here.

Which package manager owns what