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Guide for Merging Configurations Across Machines

This guide is for users who want to combine configuration settings for two or more machines.

For example, you might have some bash settings on Machine A (like useful command aliases) that are not on Machine B. You also have some settings on Machine B that you would live to move over to Machine A.

The problem is that if you use Mackup to send Machine A's bash configuration settings to Machine B, you will permanently lose any configurations on Machine B that you wanted to keep. Mackup obviously has no idea which features you want to keep and which ones you don't, so you'll have to do a bit of work to merge the different configuration files yourself before using Mackup.

Step 0: Read Through This Entire Guide First

It will probably save you some pain in the long run.

Step 1: Determine Which Configuration Files to Merge

First, pick the app you wish to keep in sync. Then determine which configuration files will be synced for that application by doing the following:

  1. Install Mackup
  2. Create a .mackup.cfg file in your home directory
  3. Add the following two lines to .mackup.cfg. Replace bash in the example below with the name of your application.
[applications_to_sync]
bash

You can get a list of supported apps by running mackup list.

  1. Save the file
  2. Run the following command:

mackup --dry-run --verbose backup

This command will let you see what mackup will do behind the scenes when it backs up your application's configuration files so you can readily see what configuration files Mackup will sync. Make note of these files.

Step 2: Prepare Your Workstations for Syncing

Now that you've identified which files you have to merge, choose one of the two approaches below for merging the configuration files. Method 1 has you do all the configuration file merges first and then pushes out them out with Mackup. With Method 2, you'll push out the configuration files from one machine to the others and then merge in your configuration changes gradually over time.

Which method should you use? It doesn't really matter. Method 1 is more work up front in exchange for less work later. Method 2 is less work up front but more work later.

Method 1 is probably best if you have very dissimilar configurations and have few machines. Method 2 is probably best if you have a machine that is very close to working the way you want and just need a few configuration settings from other machines.

Method 1: Backup Merge-Push Approach

  1. Create a backup of each machine's configuration files for the app you wish to sync.
  2. Choose a machine that will serve as the initial "master". It doesn't really matter which one.
  3. Edit your configuration files on the master machine so that they represent the ideal version of the file you wish to distribute out to your other machines.

Method 1 Example

Let's say we have two machines, A and B and that we want to sync our bash configuration across the machines. We decide that Machine A will serve as our master.

First, backup the bash configuration files (there are a few of them) for your application on all machines.

Sample backup commands for Machine A**
mkdir ~/bash_backup
cp ~/.bash_profile ~/bash_backup/bash_profile.bak
cp ~/.bash_login ~/bash_backup/bash_login.bak

...plus any other bash config files you want to keep
Sample backup commands for Machine B
mkdir ~/bash_backup
cp ~/.bash_profile ~/bash_backup/bash_profile.bak
cp ~/.bash_login ~/bash_backup/bash_login.bak

...plus any other bash config files you want to keep

Machine A will be our master so we now edit the existing configuration files on Machine A. We will use the vim text editor to do this for each of our configuration files:

vim .bash_profile
vim .bash_login

When editing these configuration files on Machine A, copy and paste the settings from Machine B that you want to keep. In essence, you are manually merging the configuration files together. Once you are satisfied the configuration files have all the settings you want and need, you are ready to push out your changes from the master machine.

Method 2: Backup Push-Merge Approach

  1. Choose a machine that will serve as the initial "master". You'll probably want to use choose the machine you use most and like its configuration settings the best.
  2. For each machine that aren't the "master" (i.e. "slaves"), back up all the configuration files for each app that you want to sync. That's it for now. However, there will be more work for you later.

Method 2 Example

Let's say we have two machines, A and B and that we want to sync our bash configuration across the machines. We decide that Machine A will serve as our master.

Since A is our master, we only need to backup the bash configuration files on Machine B:

Sample backup commands for Machine B**
mkdir ~/bash_backup
cp ~/.bash_profile ~/bash_backup/bash_profile.bak
cp ~/.bash_login ~/bash_backup/bash_login.bak

...plus any other bash config files you want to keep

If you have other machines you are syncing with the master, back those up, woo.

Step 3: Push Out the Configuration Files with Mackup

Now you are ready to use Mackup to push out the changes. You should have Mackup already installed and the .mackup.cfg file in place according to the instructions provided above. If not, do that before proceeding.

Run the following command on the master machine:

mackup backup

On each of the other "slave" machines, run:

mackup restore

If you used Method 1 in Step 2 above, you are done. You may you discover that you didn't quite merge the files exactly the way you wanted but don't worry, that's why you created the configuration file backups. You can grab snippets from these backup configuration files and add them in to the live configuration files and then easily push the changes out to all your machines using mackup.

If you used Method 2, you'll need to merge in new features over time. As you discover features you need to add, you'll need to take the appropriate snippets of configuration code from the backup configuration files you created and insert them into the appropriate configuration file. Remember it does not matter which machine's configuration file you update as these configuration files are now shared across all machines.