Installation

dothaven is one static binary. It needs no interpreter and no runtime, and encryption is built in: you do not need to install age to make or open encrypted backups.

Install

The installer script is the fastest way onto a freshly wiped machine. It needs no Homebrew and no sudo:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/doguyilmaz/dothaven/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

It downloads the release for your OS and CPU, checks it against the release’s published SHA-256 checksums (and refuses to install on a mismatch), and puts dothaven in ~/.local/bin. If that folder is not on your PATH yet, it prints the line to add.

Why not Homebrew here? On a new Mac, Homebrew needs the Xcode command-line tools first, which takes several minutes before you can restore anything.

You can set these before running it:

Variable	Default	Meaning
`DOTHAVEN_VERSION`	latest release	A tag such as `v1.4.0`
`DOTHAVEN_BIN_DIR`	`~/.local/bin`	Where to install
`DOTHAVEN_BASE_URL`	the GitHub releases page	Download from a mirror

Download dothaven_<os>_<arch>.tar.gz from the releases page, check it against checksums.txt, unpack it and move dothaven somewhere on your PATH.

Check it works

dothaven --version
dothaven doctor

doctor checks that dothaven can do its job on this machine: its folders and their permissions, free disk space, the keychain, the tools each feature uses, and GitHub if you are signed in. It changes nothing. See Doctor & troubleshooting.

Supported platforms

OS	Architectures
macOS	`amd64`, `arm64`
Linux	`amd64`, `arm64`

Windows is not supported.

What else you might want

dothaven runs on its own. A few features call tools you may already have; dothaven doctor shows which are present.

Tool	Used for	If it is missing
`git`	`ready` (finding unpushed work)	`ready` cannot check repositories
Homebrew	Listing and reinstalling Homebrew apps (macOS)	The Homebrew part of the inventory and of `reinstall` is skipped
`defaults`	macOS settings (built into macOS)
`gh`	Signing in to GitHub without a browser	Use `github login --with-token` instead
`zsh`, `ssh`	`check` of zsh files and SSH config	Those files are reported as unchecked
`chezmoi`	The optional chezmoi sync	Only `init`, `chezmoi-export --apply` and `migrate` need it

The chezmoi path also needs an age key for chezmoi (see Encryption). Encrypted dothaven backups do not.

Updating

dothaven upgrade          # also: dothaven update
dothaven upgrade --check  # see what is available, change nothing

upgrade works out how dothaven was installed and runs that installer’s own upgrade. For Homebrew that is brew update && brew upgrade --cask dothaven; for go install it is go install …@latest. For anything else it prints the releases page. dothaven never overwrites its own binary, because Homebrew tracks the version it installed and would be left describing a file that no longer exists.

On a terminal, dothaven checks at most once a day for a newer release and prints one line on stderr when there is one. Set DOTHAVEN_NO_UPDATE_CHECK=1 to turn it off. See the update notice.

Where dothaven keeps things

What	Where
Backups, snapshots, the restore ledger	`~/.local/share/dothaven` (or `$XDG_DATA_HOME/dothaven`)
Your include list, GitHub settings	`~/.config/dothaven` (or `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/dothaven`)
The GitHub token and remembered passphrase	Your system keychain (see GitHub sync)
The update check cache	`~/.cache/dothaven` (or `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/dothaven`)

Shell completion

dothaven completion zsh      # also: bash, fish, powershell
source <(dothaven completion zsh)

Run dothaven completion --help for how to install it permanently.

Next steps

Quick start

Moving to a new machine

Commands

Quick start