moudy / dotfiles

Dotfiles

Dotfiles Setup

The technique consists in storing a Git bare repository in a "side" folder (like $HOME/.cfg or $HOME/.myconfig) using a specially crafted alias so that commands are run against that repository and not the usual .git local folder, which would interfere with any other Git repositories around. https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles

Starting from scratch

# create ~/.dotfiles folder as a Git bare repository
git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles

# create an alias (or fish function) for git interactions (save in .bashrc or wherever)
alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

# set a flag for the repository to hide files not explicitly tracking
dotifles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

Install your dotfiles onto a new system

# create an alias (or fish function) for git interactions (save in .bashrc or wherever)
alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

# clone repo
git clone --bare <git-repo-url> $HOME/.dotfiles

# checkout content from the bare repository to your $HOME
# might have to remove existing files
dotfiles checkout

# set a flag for the repository to hide files not explicitly tracking
dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

Managing dotfiles

To manage dotfiles replace git with dotfiles.

dotfiles status
dotfiles add .vimrc
dotfiles commit -m "Add vimrc"
dotfiles push

Fish Shell Setup

Install fish and fisher.