punktf v4 - Go small go home

[Shemnei]

Version v4 will be big rework of some core punktf features with the big goal on relying more on external crates to reduce the code base and make it more maintainable.

Changes

Remove

• Drop support for json profiles, as this will reduce the test surface. Compared to yaml they are way to busy/cluttered anyways

Additions

• Add integration tests, example tests and unit tests; Basically just more tests
• Integration for en/decryption? (still not sure if punktf should handle that; Support Encryption using GnuPG #24). If we add this feature, we probably also need to add build-in git support to be able to encrypt files before commiting to git and decrypting after a checkout.
• FINISH DOCUMENTATION (Document shell completion #126)
• ADD EXAMPLE REPOSITORIES
• Version the profile definitions (e.g. version: "2") so we are able to distinguish between them in the future to allow migrations/support (Save version of the profile for compatability checking #8)
• Support for linux file permission, mostly meant to make files executable (Handle file permissions #15)

Rework

• Generic template engine interface
• Generic dotfile merge interface
• Replace custom templating engine with external crate ([FEATURE] - Improve variables & profiles #121, [FEATURE] - Rework templating syntax #122, Use codespans to report diagnostics #53). One of those:
  • tera
  • handlebars
  • minijinja
• Custom variable syntax (env, profile, dotfile) will be merged into just environment variables
• template option will be replaced by files having the extension of the template engine (e.g. test.txt => test.txt.tera; Might need a way to "escape" this). This will have a few benefits:
  • Don't have to treat every file in a dotfile directory a template if the flag is set (performance)
  • The engine to use is directly related to the file, which if we want, allows us to use multiple engines in parallel
  • Syntax highlighting for editors
• Improve test/dry-runs by keeping track what files would be deployed to allow checking for overwrites, targets/sources of symlinks would exist

This will be a breaking change and no support for older versions will be provided, meaning repositories will have to be manually ported to the new version.
There will probably be a check if the profile/dotfile is using old/deprecated parts which will trigger a warning and stop the deployment.

I am open to other suggestion.

[michidk]

Please don't drop yaml. Nobody wants to configure anything in json directly

[Shemnei]

It's the other way around, i want to drop support for json and only keep yaml (it's under the remove section). After re-reading it, you are right, it might need some clearer wording 😓

[michidk]

ah lol