This project helps manage dotfiles across multiple machines, allowing you to share the common parts via git to keep them up-to-date while also having infrastructure for each machine to have its own local config that survives "git pull's" of the core dotfiles setup. Then set up the remotes properly: git-config branch.master.remote origin git-config branch.master.merge master Then, cd into dotfiles and run rake. The "real" dotfiles on the machine are symlinks to the git repo, which allows easy editing of the "core" settings without getting confused. Dotfiles that allow "local machine" config are createed automatically, see .mydotfile.local. Typically the local dotfile is included at the END of the core dotfile to allow overriding of "core" settings.