Backup and Restore Dotfiles

This skill manages backups of dotfiles configurations before making changes.

Task - Backup

When creating a backup, you should:

1. Create a backup directory with timestamp:

   ~/.dotfiles-backups/backup-YYYY-MM-DD-HHMMSS/
   

2. Copy current state of:

   • All *.ln files in ~/.dotfiles
   • Current neovim config (~/.config/nvim)
   • Current tmux config (~/.tmux.conf)
   • Current bash config (~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile)
   • TPM plugins directory (~/.tmux/plugins/)
   • Lazy.nvim plugins directory (~/.local/share/nvim/)

3. Create a backup manifest file listing:

   • Timestamp
   • Git commit hash (if in git repo)
   • List of backed up files
   • Reason for backup

4. Compress old backups (older than 30 days)

Task - Restore

When restoring from a backup, you should:

1. List available backups with timestamps

2. Ask user which backup to restore

3. Show what will be restored (diff if possible)

4. Confirm before restoring

5. Restore files:

   • Copy backed up files to original locations
   • Re-run rake install for symlinks
   • Restore plugin directories

6. Verify restoration:

   • Check symlinks are correct
   • Test neovim loads without errors
   • Test tmux starts correctly

7. Offer to restore previous state if issues occur

Backup Script

Location: ~/.dotfiles/.claude/skills/backup-and-restore/backup.sh

#!/bin/bash
BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/.dotfiles-backups/backup-$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S)"
mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"

# Backup dotfiles source
cp -r ~/.dotfiles "$BACKUP_DIR/dotfiles"

# Backup actual configs
cp -r ~/.config/nvim "$BACKUP_DIR/nvim" 2>/dev/null || true
cp ~/.tmux.conf "$BACKUP_DIR/tmux.conf" 2>/dev/null || true
cp ~/.bashrc "$BACKUP_DIR/bashrc" 2>/dev/null || true
cp ~/.bash_profile "$BACKUP_DIR/bash_profile" 2>/dev/null || true

# Backup plugins
cp -r ~/.tmux/plugins "$BACKUP_DIR/tmux-plugins" 2>/dev/null || true
cp -r ~/.local/share/nvim "$BACKUP_DIR/nvim-data" 2>/dev/null || true

# Create manifest
cat > "$BACKUP_DIR/manifest.txt" <<EOF
Backup created: $(date)
Git commit: $(cd ~/.dotfiles && git rev-parse HEAD 2>/dev/null || echo "not in git")
Reason: ${1:-"Manual backup"}
Files backed up:
$(find "$BACKUP_DIR" -type f | sort)
EOF

echo "Backup created: $BACKUP_DIR"

Restore Script

Location: ~/.dotfiles/.claude/skills/backup-and-restore/restore.sh

#!/bin/bash
if [ -z "$1" ]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 <backup-directory>"
  echo "Available backups:"
  ls -1 ~/.dotfiles-backups/
  exit 1
fi

BACKUP_DIR="$HOME/.dotfiles-backups/$1"
if [ ! -d "$BACKUP_DIR" ]; then
  echo "Backup not found: $BACKUP_DIR"
  exit 1
fi

echo "Restoring from: $BACKUP_DIR"
cat "$BACKUP_DIR/manifest.txt"
echo ""
read -p "Continue with restore? (y/N) " -n 1 -r
echo
if [[ ! $REPLY =~ ^[Yy]$ ]]; then
  exit 1
fi

# Restore files
cp -r "$BACKUP_DIR/dotfiles" ~/.dotfiles
cp -r "$BACKUP_DIR/nvim" ~/.config/nvim 2>/dev/null || true
cp "$BACKUP_DIR/tmux.conf" ~/.tmux.conf 2>/dev/null || true
cp "$BACKUP_DIR/bashrc" ~/.bashrc 2>/dev/null || true
cp "$BACKUP_DIR/bash_profile" ~/.bash_profile 2>/dev/null || true

echo "Restore complete. Run 'rake install' to update symlinks."

When to Use

Backup before:

• Major plugin updates
• Configuration refactoring
• Installing new tools
• Following update-dotfiles-trends suggestions
• Experimenting with new configs

Restore when:

• Neovim won't start
• Tmux has errors
• Shell configuration broken
• Plugin conflicts
• Need to rollback changes

Output

For backup operations:

• Backup location
• Size of backup
• Files included
• Git commit reference

For restore operations:

• Available backups with dates
• Backup manifest
• Diff of changes (if possible)
• Restoration status
• Next steps (reload shell, restart tmux, etc.)