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+;;;;;
+title: rcm: Another dotfile manager
+tags: software, rc
+date: 2014-07-03 17:53
+format: md
+;;;;;
+
+A little while ago I saw a link pass by about
+[rcm](http://robots.thoughtbot.com/rcm-for-rc-files-in-dotfiles-repos),
+a RC file (or dotfile) manager. It seems a lot like using
+[GNU Stow](https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/) for your dotfiles.
+
+The basic idea seems to be that you create links to all your dotfiles
+and the actual files are all kept in a single directory structure,
+presumably for easy sharing with, for example, git.
+
+## The good...
+
+It seems that rcm has a few interesting features.
+
+### Host-specific dotfiles
+
+It gives you an option to have host-specific dotfiles, which is very
+handy when you're working on multiple (types of) system. My laptop
+doesn't always have the same needs as my PC and my server(s)
+definitely have different needs.
+
+## The bad...
+
+In the short time I've spent with it, I've also found a few things I
+don't much like.
+
+### Everything in a single directory
+
+I'm not so sure about the choice to put everything in a single
+directory structure, which top-level dotfiles in the top-level
+directory. This links all the files together in a repository-idea
+kind-of way. I can't have a zsh repository and an Emacs repository
+without also having different rcm source directories.
+
+Actually, this isn't entirely true. I can still separate them, with
+the use of [labels](#labels), but not in an ideal fashion.
+
+### Unfriendly to directories
+
+It doesn't seem to like linking directories, though it can. Linking
+directories is essential for me as I can on occasion remove a file
+from one of my configuration directories and I don't want to have to
+keep track of dead links like that manually. If you do link a
+directory, instead of it showing up in `lsrc` as a single entry, all
+the files in the directory are shown separately.
+
+<a name="labels"></a>
+### Labels
+
+The labels are a nice idea, but they aren't what I expected them to be
+when I read the description. Like host-specific dotfiles, labeled
+dotfiles are put in their own directory. This allows you to separate
+the dotfiles from others. What I didn't like about this implementation
+is that afterwards you always have to specify which label you want to
+use, which seems to make it impossible to still setup your dotfiles in
+a single command.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+I personally won't be using rcm to manage my dotfiles. The solution I
+have right now with GNU Stow works better and is easier to setup,
+although that too has its drawbacks.
+
+This is not a definitive description or review of the software, I have
+spent only a small amount of time with it and these are the findings I
+made when trying to set it up with a few config files. If you really
+want to know about it you should try it, it has quite a bit of
+documentation to get you going.
+
+<!-- Local Variables: -->
+<!-- mode: markdown -->
+<!-- End: -->