Use multiple config files to separate settings that are machine-specific

[rbanffy]

Use multiple config files so that personal preferences can be split from machine-specific options

Like many people, I keep a dotfiles repo. When using multiple Windows machines, the installed WSL hosts are different and, therefore, it's not possible to share the settings.json file between multiple computers because the elements under profiles.list are different, while profiles.defaults is safe to share between computers.

I would suggest Terminal to use a second JSON file under LocalState to keep the profiles.list entries to make it easy to keep settings.json safe to share between multiple machines while keeping unrelated settings in a separate file. Also, the defaultProfile key would need to be moved into this new file, and JSON schemas should be adjusted to reflect that.

[zadjii-msft]

A pile of things that are all related:

• Add support for roaming settings.json or storing it elsewhere #2933
• Need a way to have per-machine profiles in settings #641
• Feature Request - use a directory for profiles #2303

it's not possible to share the settings.json file between multiple computers because the elements under profiles.list are different

It should also mostly work. The WSL profiles the Terminal generates for you are "dynamic profiles", which means that the Termnial recognizes that those profiles come from somewhere else, which may or may not exist. So the Terminal is smart enough to hide those profiles if you were to uninstall the distro, or move the file to a machine that doesn't have that WSL distro installed. We actually used to also roam the settings.json file across machines, which was part of what necessitated such functionality.

That being said, if you add your own WSL profiles pointing at specific distros, then the Terminal isn't going to be able to figure those out for you.

Of course, you can also use fragments for this. Just create a file in:

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Terminal\Fragments\{app-name}\{file-name}.json

({app-name} and {file-name} can be literally anything, doesn't matter)

and then put whatever machine-specific profiles you want in there.

/dup #2933

[ghost]

Hi! We've identified this issue as a duplicate of another one that already exists on this Issue Tracker. This specific instance is being closed in favor of tracking the concern over on the referenced thread. Thanks for your report!

[rbanffy]

Thank you for the prompt response, @zadjii-msft. I did a couple dozen searches before not finding the issues you pointed to.

It kind of works, but, in this specific case, I'm not sure the fragments approach will solve - the settings I'd like to share are not specific to a profile, but are on the profiles.defaults key (I change the font face for all profiles). I'll give it a try as soon as I get back to a Windows machine where I can test it.

In any case, having profiles and settings on separate would still be a good idea. I made a note on #641, which seems like a closer idea to this one.

[zadjii-msft]

Oh I mean, so I'm thinking:

• Leave all the settings you want on all machines in settings.json. sync that to your different devices however you want. Fill in the profiles.defaults there with whatever you want.
• In the terminal fragments, add all your per-machine profiles. So here you'd add your WSL's, your various different workspaces, etc.

So the one you're putting in the normal settings file is only the things that'll work on every machine.

(Maybe I'm still misunderstanding though ☺️)

[rbanffy]

That was the idea. Should we consider something like this as the default behavior or would it cascade into changes to other unrelated programs such as the wsl.exe install system?