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add different scenarios to the Quickstart section #1205

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67 changes: 65 additions & 2 deletions README.md
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Expand Up @@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ Keep your application settings in sync.
- [Quickstart](#quickstart)
- [Usage](#usage)
- [What does it do](#what-does-it-do)
- [Bullsh*t, what does it really do to my files](#bullsht-what-does-it-really-do-to-my-files)
- [Bullsh\*t, what does it really do to my files](#bullsht-what-does-it-really-do-to-my-files)
- [Supported Storages](#supported-storages)
- [Supported Applications](#supported-applications)
- [Can you support application X](#can-you-support-application-x)
Expand All @@ -21,6 +21,21 @@ Keep your application settings in sync.

## Quickstart

Instructions for three common use cases are below.

- [**Scenario 1**](#Scenario-1) is the quickest and easiest but gives
you no control over which applications are shared out for syncing.
- [**Scenario 2**](#Scenario-2) is also quick and easy and gives
you control over which applications are shared out for syncing.
- [**Scenario 3**](#Scenario-3) is for the many unfortunate souls
that never bothered to sync the configurations files on the different
machines they work on and are ready for Mackup to end their misery.

### Scenario 1

You want to push **all** configuration settings from **all**
supported applications to get synced:

If you have [Dropbox](https://www.dropbox.com) installed and want to use it to
save your config files, that's super easy.

Expand Down Expand Up @@ -63,7 +78,55 @@ mackup restore

Done!

You can find more detailed instructions in [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md).
You can find more detailed installation instructions in [INSTALL.md](INSTALL.md).

### Scenario 2

You want to push configuration settings from **some** applications
from one machine to others for syncing.

Let's say you want to share just your bash configuration files with
your other machines. Simply create a file in your home directory
named `.mackup.cfg` and add the following two lines to it with your
favorite text editor:

```
[applications_to_sync]
bash
```

Save the file and then run the same commands given in Scenario 1
above to install and sync your apps. Done!

As you get more comfortable with Mackup and want to add new
applications to sync, simply add the name of the supported application
to the `.mackup.cfg` to the end of the file on a new line by itself.
You can also easily add unsupported applications as well.

Learn more about modifying and customizing Mackup in [the documentation](doc/README.md).

### Scenario 3

You want to merge the configuration settings of two or
more machines.

For example, let's say your bash configuration on Machine A is different
than the bash configuration on Machine B. You have some bash settings
on Machine A (like useful aliases) that you want to move over to
Machine B. But you also have settings on Machine B that you want to
move over to Machine A.

The problem is that if you use Mackup to send Machine A's bash configuration settings
to Machine B, you will permanently lose any configurations that were on
Machine B but not on Machine A.

You might decide you don't care about merging app configurations and can live with
replacing one machine's configuration with another. If so, just follow scenario
1 or 2 above.

Otherwise, if you want to keep configuration settings from two or more
different machines, we have provided
[a guide in our documentation](doc/configuration_merge_guide.md)

## Usage

Expand Down