How to save Atom editor config and list of packages installed

Question

I have recently started using Atom editor. Its pretty great so far. I am planning to install it on several other machines.

How can I replicate the config and list of pac

Answer 1

On OSX/macOS:

1. Open Terminal on the computer which has the settings you want to preserve / sync to others.

2. Move your ~/.atom folder to Dropbox or other synced service (~ represents your /users/ folder), like so:

   mv ~/.atom ~/Dropbox/atom
   

3. Open terminal, and make a symlink that connects the place Atom expects its config to be (~/.atom), to your synced folder, like so:

   ln -s ~/Dropbox/atom ~/.atom
   

4. On other computers you want to use these settings, open Terminal and run:

   rm -rf ~/.atom && ln -s ~/Dropbox/atom ~/.atom
   

   (This deletes the .atom folder and adds the symlink in one line.)

With this method, your settings are automatically in sync on each computer, no need to manually update anything.

The only potential bug I have noticed can occur if your settings specify a font which another computer does not have. Installing the font on that computer fixes. All packages, themes & settings installed by Atom are automatically there.

This same method can be used for many apps (WebStorm, Sublime Text, iTunes are a few examples).