Why would you want to do this?
Yeah, yeah, it happens even to the best of us.
You start committing changes to your repo, and then you forget to push them.
Then you go to another machine, and you realize that your repo is outdated.
BRUH!
To prevent this, you can easily set up a systemd user service that runs a script to git pull your repo every time you log in.
I am going to illustrate this with my dotfiles repo, but you can use this for any git repo you want to keep updated.
1. Let’s create a script that pulls
I have my DOTFILES in the ~/dotfiles folder.
What we need to do first is to create an executable script that does git pull.
Let’s create a folder for our scripts if you don’t have one already:
mkdir -p ~/dotfiles/bin
touch ~/dotfiles/bin/dotfiles-update.sh
Yes, I like to live dangerously. I put the script to update dotfiles inside the dotfiles repo 😊.
Now, edit ~/dotfiles/bin/dotfiles-update.sh with your favorite text editor and add the following code, then save:
#!/bin/bash
cd "$HOME/dotfiles" || exit 1
/usr/bin/git pull origin main
Let’s not forget to make it executable:
chmod +x ~/dotfiles/bin/dotfiles-update.sh
2. Create a systemd user service
First, create the necessary directory and the service file:
mkdir -p ~/.config/systemd/user
touch ~/.config/systemd/user/dotfiles-update.service
Edit ~/.config/systemd/user/dotfiles-update.service and add the following code:
[Unit]
Description=Update dotfiles on login
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=%h/dotfiles/bin/dotfiles-update.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
- oneshot means it runs once and then exits.
- %h is a shortcut for your home directory.
3. Enable the service
Run the daemon-reload command to make systemd aware of the new service, and then enable it:
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable dotfiles-update.service
Magic!
Now, every time your user session starts(when you log in), it will run the script and pull the latest changes.
4. (Optional) If you prefer to have it check periodically
If you want it to check every hour, add a timer:
Create a file:
touch ~/.config/systemd/user/dotfiles-update.timer
Edit ~/.config/systemd/user/dotfiles-update.timer and add the following code:
[Unit]
Description=Periodically update dotfiles
[Timer]
OnBootSec=2m
OnUnitActiveSec=1h
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
Enable the timer:
systemctl --user enable --now dotfiles-update.timer
Debug
If you want to see the logs when it runs or if it fails, use:
journalctl --user -fu dotfiles-update.service
To check the status of the service, use:
systemctl --user status dotfiles-update.service
The difference is: journalctl shows the logs of the service, while systemctl status shows the current state (running, failed, etc.).
You can find the codes on my GitHub Dotfiles.