Matto writes about Unix tinkering: OpenBSD and FreeBSD on old laptops, Emacs, Gopher, Awk CGI, XMPP and encrypted git remotes.
HN commenters link it for practical Unix recipes like syncing org files, converting markdown to PDF with groff, and DNS ad blocking, and some follow the blog.
I agree with you, but re: templating: if you're using shell scripts, why not use m4 as well?
Shell of course has templating -- but it's a little dangerous...:
template=teapot size=short build=stout \
cat <<eof > teapot.conf
I'm a $template - $size and $build. I live at $(hostname).
eof
[ed: m4 is a little like cpp (the c pre-prosessor) on steroids (or acid). To get a feel for how it relates to templating for config files etc, see eg:
http://box.matto.nl/m4.html ]
totally unrelated to the topic but here I am following this blog now because of very much in common. That is, 1. i3, 2. emacs, 3. sync'ing git repos accross machines.
https://box.matto.nl/sparkleshare-to-sync-org-files.html
Thanks, i was using this: http://pgl.yoyo.org/adservers/ in a similar fashion to described in here: http://box.matto.nl/dnsadblok.html but will look into this one as well.
Some Unix nerd already did a md to groff translator written in AWK.
https://box.matto.nl/convert-markdownish-to-pdf-with-groff-mom.html