📦 SHM (Simple Home Manager)

A simple dotfile manager and package manager wrapper for Linux/macOS

Define symbolic links for multiple os profiles, and install packages from multiple package managers like

Package Manager	Icon
nix-env	🧪
brew	🍺
apt	🐧
dnf	🔧
flatpak	📦
snap	📦

[!WARN] still testing package manager wrapper configurations may not work will all managers

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📌 Synopsis

stow is great for symlinking dotfiles, but it doesn't help manage your system or user packages.
Meanwhile, Nix Home Manager does this — but if you're not on NixOS, things can get overly complex.

I just wanted a simple tool to:

• ✅ Link dotfiles
• ✅ Install packages from any package manager

So I made shm — a lightweight CLI tool that uses YAML configuration to initialize your dev environment in seconds.

⚙️ Installation

Run the following installation script

curl -sSfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/DavidRR-F/shm/main/install.sh | bash

[!HINT] This script installs the executable in your ~/.local/bin by default to remain user scoped

💡Usage

For examples, you can view my personal shm configurations

🗂️File Structure

Create your shm configuration in your dotfiles directory

.shm/
├── base.yml
├── <profile>.yml
└── managers/
    └── <manager>.yml

File/Directory	Description
.shm/base.yml	base shm configuration for common configurations between os's or single configuration (Can be empty)
.shm/.yml	additional profiles configurations that can be added to base configuration
.shm/managers/.yml	manager object configuration defines for package managers

🔗 Dotfile Linking

You can define symbolic link definitions in your base.yml or <profile>.yml

links:
  - src: ~/.dotfiles/.bashrc 
    dest: ~/.bashrc
  - src: ~/.dotfiles/myscript.sh 
    dest: ~/.local/bin/myscript
    exe: true # makes file execute

Simply run shm on your dotfile base directory to apply the links in your base.yml

shm ~/dotfiles/path

📦 Packages Managers

In your managers directory you can define manager yaml object

# package manager name (must match file name and be executable)
name: nix-env
command: ["nix-env"]
# arguments for install command
args: ["-iA"]
# Nested commands will be invoked if package manager not already installed
install:
  # package manager installation command
  pre: ["sh", "<(curl -L https://nixos.org/nix/install)", "--daemon"]
  # commands to run after package manager installation
  post: [".", "/etc/profile.d/nix.sh"]
# list of packages to install
packages:
  - nixpkgs.starship
  - nixpkgs.lazygit

You can then add the manager(s) references to your base.yml or <profile>.yml configurations

managers:
  - nix-env

By default, only links are applied when running shm, add the install-packages flag to additionally defined install packages

shm ~/dotfiles/path --install-packages

🧩 Profiles

You are able do define profile files in your .shm configuration

Example: .shm/mac.yml

links:
  - src: ~/.dotfiles/lazygit
    dest: ~/Applications/Library Support/lazygit

managers:
  - brew

When running shm you can specify a profile and those configuration will be added to your base configuration

shm ~/dotfiles/path --profile mac --install-packages

🧪 Dry Run

You can preview what shm will do without making changes using --dry-run.

shm ~/dotfiles/path -i -p mac --dry-run