Using this Repository (on a new machine)

Set the dotfiles alias for the current shell:

$ alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

Clone down this repository into the ~/.dotfiles directory:

$ git clone --bare <this_git_repository_url> $HOME/.dotfiles

Checkout the files in the ~/.dotfiles repository into the $HOME directory:

$ dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
$ dotfiles checkout

Creating this Repository

Create a bare git repository, i.e. ~/.dotfiles to store the files:

$ git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles

Create an alias dotfiles to interact with the ~/.dotfiles repository:

$ echo "alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> ~/.bash_aliases
$ . ~/.bash_aliases

Prevent the ~/.dotfiles repository from showing files that are note explicitly added:

$ dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

Set the remote url:

$ dotfiles remote add origin <your_git_repository_url>

Now this repository can be used with the dotfiles alias. For example:

$ dotfiles status
$ dotfiles add .bashrc
$ dotfiles commit -m "add .bashrc"
$ dotfiles push origin main