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Sys

The host system: diagnostics, hardware configuration, package management. Available on Linux and macOS; recipes marked (Linux only) require systemd or tools not available on macOS.

Structure

Path Purpose Help
sys::diag::* Observability — CPU, memory, disk, boot, logs just sys diag help
sys::pm::* Package management — brew, apt, dnf, flatpak just sys pm help
sys::bluefin::* Bluefin host operations — ostree, pin, stage-upgrade just sys bluefin help (Bluefin only)
sys::kbd-backlight Dell keyboard idle timeout this file

Quick Start

  • just sys diag check-all — temperatures, per-core CPU usage, top processes, memory, and disk I/O in one shot. Good starting point when something feels slow but you don't know where to look yet.
  • just update (top-level) — full system refresh: chezmoi update → brew update → all sys::pm::* updates → verify. Use this routinely.

Hardware — sys::kbd-backlight

just sys kbd-backlight              # show current timeout
just sys kbd-backlight -T 30s       # set timeout to 30 seconds
just sys kbd-backlight --timeout 5m # set timeout to 5 minutes
just sys kbd-backlight --toggle     # switch between 10s and 5m

Configures the Dell laptop keyboard backlight idle timeout via the kernel kbd_backlight interface (sysfs path /sys/class/leds/dell::kbd_backlight/stop_timeout). Reach for it when the default 10-second timeout is in the way — e.g. presenting, reading something off-keyboard, or working in dim light.

Timeout values match the kernel format: positive integer followed by s, m, or h (e.g. 30s, 5m, 1h). --toggle flips between the two values the user most commonly cycles (10s and 5m); useful as a keyboard shortcut binding. --timeout and --toggle are mutually exclusive.

Gotchas:

  • Dell-specific. Fails fast with a clear error on other hardware (the sysfs node won't exist).
  • The kernel only accepts a fixed set of values and rounds arbitrary inputs to its nearest accepted bucket — 123s becomes 2m.
  • Requires sudo (root-owned sysfs file). Expect a password or fingerprint prompt.