Keep your application settings in sync (OS X/Linux)

Mackup

Keep your application settings in sync.

Table of content

Quickstart
Usage
What does it do
Bullsh*t, what does it really do to my files
Supported Storages
Supported Applications
Can you support application X
Why did you do this
What platforms are supported
What's up with the weird name
Where can I find more information

Quickstart

If you have Dropbox installed and want to use it to save your config files, that's super easy.

On macOS, if you want an easy install, you can install Homebrew and do:

# Install Mackup
brew install mackup

# Launch it and back up your files
mackup backup

If not running macOS, or you don't like Homebrew, you can use pip.

Note: The below command will check if a previous version of Mackup is already installed on your system. If this is the case, it will be upgraded to the latest version.

# Install Mackup with PIP
pip install --upgrade mackup

# Launch it and back up your files
mackup backup

On Ubuntu, pip will install to the current user's home directory rather than system-wide. Because of this, when installing pip on Ubuntu you will need to run pip install with the --system flag as well (on other platforms this is not needed)

You're all set and constantly backed up from now on.

Next, on any new workstation, do:

# Install Mackup
brew install mackup

# Launch it and restore your files
mackup restore

Done!

You can find more detailed instructions in INSTALL.md.

Usage

mackup backup

Backup your application settings.

mackup restore

Restore your application settings on a newly installed workstation.

mackup uninstall

Copy back any synced config file to its original place.

mackup list

Display the list of applications supported by Mackup.

mackup -h

Get some help, obviously...

What does it do

Back ups your application settings in a safe directory (e.g. Dropbox)
Syncs your application settings among all your workstations
Restores your configuration on any fresh install in one command line

By only tracking pure configuration files, it keeps the crap out of your freshly new installed workstation (no cache, temporary and locally specific files are transfered).

Mackup makes setting up the environment easy and simple, saving time for your family, great ideas, and all the cool stuff you like.

Bullsh*t, what does it really do to my files

Let's take git as an example. Your settings for git are saved in your home folder, in the .gitconfig file.

Backup

If you have Dropbox, these things happen when you launch mackup backup:

cp ~/.gitconfig ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfig
rm ~/.gitconfig
ln -s ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfig ~/.gitconfig

Now your git config is always backed up and up to date on all your workstations.

Restore

When you launch mackup restore, here's what it's really doing:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/Mackup/.gitconfig ~/.gitconfig

That's it, you got your git config setup on your new workstation.

mackup does the same for any supported application.

Uninstall

You can revert all your files to their original state.

# Just run this
mackup uninstall

This will remove the symlinks and copy back the files from the Mackup folder in Dropbox to their original places in your home. The Mackup folder and the files in it stay put, so that any other computer also running Mackup is unaffected.

Supported Storages

Dropbox
Google Drive
Copy
iCloud
Anything able to sync a folder (e.g. Git)

See the README file in the doc directory for more info.

Unsupported Storages

Box: No longer supported as it ignores dotfiles, see https://github.com/lra/mackup/issues/807.

Supported Applications

Can you support application X

We can with your help ;)

Personalization & configuration

Have an application that shouldn't be generally supported but that you use? Or a cool file you want to sync?

Create a ~/.mackup directory to sync an application or any file or directory

Why did you do this

Yesterday, I had a talk with Zach Zaro, complaining about the pain it is to reconfigure our Macbook each time we get a new one or install from scratch. That's a talk we have already had months ago.

I change my workstation every X months. Each time I either lose my apps' configurations, or I just waste a bunch of hours getting setup like I was on my old box. I also spend a lot of time reconfiguring the same stuff again on all my workstations (home, work).

Boring...

Some people tried to solve the problem on the application layer, like Github's Boxen, but it solves a different problem, from my point of view. I don't spend a lot of time installing or downloading stuff. I spend time configuring it.

For years, I've used a personal shell script that was copying known config files into Subversion, Git or Dropbox, and linked them into my home. But I felt a lot of us had the same problem: Making a more generic tool could help others and I could get help from others to support more apps in the tool.

So here comes Mackup, the little tool that will sync all your application configs to Dropbox (or Google Drive, or anything).

And it's GPL, of course.

What platforms are supported

macOS
GNU/Linux

What's up with the weird name

Mackup is just a portmanteau of Mac and Backup. It is simple, short, and easy to remember, and it corresponds with the whole idea of Mackup: the simpler – the better! (And I suck at naming stuff, but who doesn't.)

Where can I find more information

In the doc directory.

Got this when trying to backup my .atom folder :

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/mackup", line 26, in <module>
    mackup.main.main()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mackup/main.py", line 48, in main
    app.backup()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mackup/application.py", line 83, in backup
    utils.copy(filepath, mackup_filepath)
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.7.2/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mackup/utils.py", line 91, in copy
    shutil.copytree(src, dst)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/shutil.py", line 208, in copytree
    raise Error, errors
shutil.Error: [('/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/.bin/csonc', '/Users/anahkiasen/Dropbox/Mackup/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/.bin/csonc', "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/.bin/csonc'"), ('/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/cake', '/Users/anahkiasen/Dropbox/Mackup/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/cake', "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/cake'"), ('/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/coffee', '/Users/anahkiasen/Dropbox/Mackup/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/coffee', "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/.bin/coffee'"), ('/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/fs-plus/node_modules/.bin/rimraf', '/Users/anahkiasen/Dropbox/Mackup/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/fs-plus/node_modules/.bin/rimraf', "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/emmet/node_modules/season/node_modules/fs-plus/node_modules/.bin/rimraf'"), ('/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/travis-ci-status/node_modules/.bin/travis-ci', '/Users/anahkiasen/Dropbox/Mackup/.atom/packages/travis-ci-status/node_modules/.bin/travis-ci', "[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/anahkiasen/.atom/packages/travis-ci-status/node_modules/.bin/travis-ci'")]

If ~/.mackup.cfg does not exist, Mackup asks the user if he wants to make one. It then prompts them to answer some questions so that it can be generated. Also generates custom apps in the ~/.mackup folder if the user wants to.

User Action Needed

Mavericks uses cfprefsd deamon to cache app settings. This caused mackup not to work for many apps (for example Forklift, F.lux) and even worse, to delete settings.

http://www.macinside.info/process.php?id=6616

Steps to reproduce:

Login in both computers
Open Forklift (for example, can be any app with a plist file in ~/Library/Preferences/) in both computers.
Quit Forklift in both computers.
On computer #1, change a setting for the app, close the app, and wait for dropbox to sync the file to the second computer.
On computer #2, open forklift. You will notice the app doesn't reflect your change.
Close the app. The plist file will get overwritten with the settings that are on computer #2, therefore deleting the setting you've set on step 3.

I've tried disabling the cfprefsd service, however, this prevents the mac from loading any plist file.

Mac App Store apps keep files inside ~/Library/Containers/. These cannot be replaced with soft links (ln -s), but do work with hard links (ln) and OS X aliases. Since hard links cannot be used on directories, this would work for many apps, but not all.

My suggestion would be to add CONTAINERS = 'Library/Containers/' to # Commonly used paths #, and then when mackup encounters an app that references something that starts with CONTAINERS, use the applescript way; else, make a symbolic link as always.

I’ve been thinking about this option lately. I’ve personally had my fair share of issues caused by the way mackup works by default (making links to a dropbox directory), whether by having more than one computer logged on at the same time, changes to mackup itself, or some other reason. I’ve also seen some other open issues with problems that would not occur would it not be for settings being symlinked, as opposed to copied over.

How many times do users change app settings, really? Wouldn’t the extra (small) trouble of running a command when updating settings be a more than acceptable price to pay for improved stability? It would also provide some features for free, like support for MAS apps.

Now, I certainly understand that would be a big change to this tool (that a lot of people use), so I’m looking for your input on this, @lra, is this something you’d be willing to consider?

I'm using the iCould engine, no other configuration.

After running mackup backup -f, the ~/.oh-my-zsh is left in a dirty state, which breaks upgrade_oh_my_zsh.

➜  .oh-my-zsh git:(master) ✗ git status
On branch master
Your branch is up to date with 'origin/master'.

Changes not staged for commit:
  (use "git add/rm <file>..." to update what will be committed)
  (use "git checkout -- <file>..." to discard changes in working directory)

	deleted:    custom/example.zsh
	deleted:    custom/plugins/example/example.plugin.zsh
	deleted:    custom/themes/example.zsh-theme

Untracked files:
  (use "git add <file>..." to include in what will be committed)

	custom

no changes added to commit (use "git add" and/or "git commit -a")

➜  ~ upgrade_oh_my_zsh
Updating Oh My Zsh
error: cannot pull with rebase: You have unstaged changes.
error: please commit or stash them.
There was an error updating. Try again later?

Today I was using Mackup and I noticed this in the help documentation:

By default, Mackup syncs all application data (including private keys!) via Dropbox, but may be configured to exclude applications or use a different backend with a .mackup.cfg file.

I really like Mackup—it saves a ton of time when setting up a new computer. However, the idea of automatically syncing SSH keys by default really scares me. A few years ago I accidentally exposed an SSH key and someone used it to charge a few thousand dollars to AWS for my company. I'd really like to avoid doing anything like this again in the future.

In reading through #512 and #109, it looks like this behavior was turned off. However, the help documentation doesn't seem to indicate that. So which one is correct? I feel strongly that synching private keys by default is not obvious behavior, and it has the potential to have some serious consequences.

Also, will Mackup sync other types of sensitive information in the future? What scares me most about this is not necessarily what Mackup is syncing today, but what it might add in the future that I don't notice.

Thanks!

I have backup on Dropbox one day ago, and config with ~/.mackup.cfg but today use mackup restore and get error on new mac.

error message:

$ mackup restore
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.8.1/libexec/bin/mackup", line 9, in <module>
    load_entry_point('mackup==0.8.1', 'console_scripts', 'mackup')()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.8.1/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mackup/main.py", line 59, in main
    mackup_app.restore()
  File "/usr/local/Cellar/mackup/0.8.1/libexec/lib/python2.7/site-packages/mackup/application.py", line 122, in restore
    home_filepath))
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/posixpath.py", line 162, in samefile
    s1 = os.stat(f1)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/Users/amowu/Dropbox/Mackup/.mackup.cfg'

why the .mackup.cfg change to Dropbox folder?

thanks.

It is safer to prevent any the credential keys shared or backed up. Normally if computer changed, the user should generate new keys instead of reusing existing ones.

After upgrading mackup to 0.7.4 via homebrew, it became impossible to use the executable as it immediately coughed and died.

The cough:

$ mackup
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/mackup", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2603, in <module>
    working_set.require(__requires__)
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 666, in require
    needed = self.resolve(parse_requirements(requirements))
  File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve
    raise DistributionNotFound(req)  # XXX put more info here
pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: mackup==0.7.4

About my current setup:

$ uname -a
Darwin Concurrent-Chickpea.local 13.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 13.4.0: Sun Aug 17 19:50:11 PDT 2014; root:xnu-2422.115.4~1/RELEASE_X86_64 x86_64

$ brew --version
0.9.5

If I can provide any additional info, please let me know.

Thanks!

Jonathan

Backing up Library/Application Support/SourceTree/sourcetree.license...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./mackup.py", line 731, in <module>
    main()
  File "./mackup.py", line 684, in main
    app.backup()
  File "./mackup.py", line 310, in backup
    delete(filepath)
  File "./mackup.py", line 490, in delete
    os.remove(filepath)
OSError: [Errno 1] Operation not permitted: '/Users/dbingham/Library/Application Support/SourceTree/sourcetree.license'

All submissions

[x] I have followed the Contributing Guidelines
[x] I have checked to ensure there aren't other open Pull Requests for the same update/change

Adding/updating Application X Support

[ ] This PR is only for one application
[x] It has been added to the list of supported applications in the README
[x] Changes have been added to the WIP section of the CHANGELOG
[x] Syncing does not break the application
[x] Syncing does not compete with any syncing functionality internal to the application
[x] The configuration syncs the minimal set of data
[x] No file specific to the local workstation is synced
[x] No sensitive data is synced

Improving the Mackup codebase

[x] My submission passes the tests
[x] I have linted the code locally prior to submission
[ ] I have written new tests as applicable
[ ] I have added an explanation of what the changes do

Bumps certifi from 2021.10.8 to 2022.12.7.

Commits

9e9e840 2022.12.07
b81bdb2 2022.09.24
939a28f 2022.09.14
aca828a 2022.06.15.2
de0eae1 Only use importlib.resources's new files() / Traversable API on Python ≥3.11 ...
b8eb5e9 2022.06.15.1
47fb7ab Fix deprecation warning on Python 3.11 (#199)
b0b48e0 fixes #198 -- update link in license
9d514b4 2022.06.15
4151e88 Add py.typed to MANIFEST.in to package in sdist (#196)
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dependencies

I find it quite indirect when trying to desync a single synced application. I have to manually copy back the file(s) and modify the config. It would be convenient by adding CLI options like mackup sync <application> and mackup desync <application> to automatically get the works done.

wondering if it's just me. i remember the first time i played with mackup i tried both iCloud and Dropbox and i had issue with iCloud where some plist wouldn't be read or recognized by some apps. switching to Dropbox solved this issue.

now Dropbox has updated its macOS integration by moving to the /Library/CloudStorage folder. things start breaking again for me. i'm not talking about symlink issues, my symlinks are correctly updated. but for example (at least) Xcode doesn't seem to be able to read/write its general plist from the Dropbox folder. each time i start it, all my settings are back to zero. if i remove the symlink and copy the plist file instead, it works. Xcode reads it and all my settings are back. as soon as i use again a symlink though, it seems Xcode doesn't "get" it.

so, wondering. is it me? is it the switch to the /Library/CloudStorage from Dropbox? if it's not just me, i guess there's something to be updated on mackup's side, even if it's just the support for Xcode overall, and the xcode.cfg.

Hi There

I use Mackup with dropbox (using CloudStorage) using the workaround suggested in #1858 - I am running on an M1 Pro MBP but i can also observe the same issue on an Intel Mac as well

this might be happening in more apps, i've noticed a few apps (Apple native and non Apple)

I prefer to use a different Shell profile and fonts etc, wierd that after upgrade (reinstall and restore mackup) - my terminal preferences were back at default

attempted to manually change the preferences in terminal, when i quit it and restarted it, it was back to default.

deleted the Symlink to terminal preferences -

rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Terminal.plist

restarted terminal, reset settings, restarted terminal and the settings are fine

is there possibly some new permissions/security change that breaks symlinks and therefore mackups functionality on ventura?

I've observed similar issues in iStat Menus, need to check for other apps specifically

shell or other command line based utilities appear to be OK, it does appear to be limited to "GUI" apps at a first glance

Summary:

Adding missing karabiner config
Missing Postico data
Missing .config folder and app support for raycast
Include entire dash app support, includes some seemingly-important library files

Some of the changes are a bit liberal with including data that could contain sensitive data or state-dependend information. However, I've found this is better than the alternative in my case.

All submissions

[ ] I have followed the Contributing Guidelines
[ ] I have checked to ensure there aren't other open Pull Requests for the same update/change

Adding/updating Application X Support

[ ] This PR is only for one application
[ ] It has been added to the list of supported applications in the README
[ ] Changes have been added to the WIP section of the CHANGELOG
[ ] Syncing does not break the application
[ ] Syncing does not compete with any syncing functionality internal to the application
[ ] The configuration syncs the minimal set of data
[ ] No file specific to the local workstation is synced
[ ] No sensitive data is synced