Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#31

Post by aprdm » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:41 AM UTC

StreakyCobra wrote: post #8

I use: git init --bare $HOME/.myconf alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.myconf/ --work-tree=$HOME' config config status.showUntrackedFiles no where my ~/.myconf directory is a git bare repository. Then any file within the home folder can be versioned with normal commands like: config status config add .vimrc config commit -m "Add vimrc" config add .config/redshift.conf config commit -m "Add redshift config"…

Can you write a blog post on your workflow? I would love to learn more on how you to use it :P

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#32

Post by trengrj » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:44 AM UTC

I have a little Makefile that symlinks everything (WIP) https://github.com/trengrj/dotfiles/blob/master/Makefile.

I was previously using an automated Ruby script but found it inflexible and so have switched to a hand coded Makefile.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#33

Post by shabda » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:44 AM UTC

durdn wrote: post #26

StreakyCobra wrote: post #8

I use: git init --bare $HOME/.myconf alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.myconf/ --work-tree=$HOME' config config status.showUntrackedFiles no where my ~/.myconf directory is a git bare repository. Then any file within the home folder can be versioned with normal commands like: config status config add .vimrc config commit -m "Add vimrc" config add .config/redshift.conf config commit -m "Add redshift config"…

Honestly this is genius! I hadn't thought of doing it like that, thank you! I had resorted to the usual .cfg folder and a helper script to link/update everything.

Could you explain how this works? Won't this be putting the .bashrc in $HOME/.myconf/.bashrc, which won't get picked up by bash? (And similar for other dotfiles)

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#34

Post by nindalf » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:50 AM UTC

shabda wrote: post #33

durdn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly this is genius! I hadn't thought of doing it like that, thank you! I had resorted to the usual .cfg folder and a helper script to link/update everything.

Could you explain how this works? Won't this be putting the .bashrc in $HOME/.myconf/.bashrc, which won't get picked up by bash? (And similar for other dotfiles)

You could add a symlink in your $HOME folder

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#35

Post by thekaleb » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:51 AM UTC

My ~/.config directory is a git repository. I use some environment variables for utilities (like vim) that do not support the XDG spec.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#36

Post by qznc » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:51 AM UTC

simi_ wrote: post #29

I keep all my dotfiles in a repo at ~/cfg, and have a script to perform tasks such as creating symlinks (e.g. ~/.emacs.el -> ~/cfg/emacs.el) and installing brew, antigen, etc. https://github.com/andreis/cfg

Same here

https://github.com/qznc/dot

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#37

Post by abricot » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

StreakyCobra wrote: post #8

I use: git init --bare $HOME/.myconf alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.myconf/ --work-tree=$HOME' config config status.showUntrackedFiles no where my ~/.myconf directory is a git bare repository. Then any file within the home folder can be versioned with normal commands like: config status config add .vimrc config commit -m "Add vimrc" config add .config/redshift.conf config commit -m "Add redshift config"…

I'm confused - you can add files that are in a parent directory?

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#38

Post by s_kilk » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

I just rebuild them by hand whenever I need to.

It helps weed out the crap I've accumulated since the last machine rebuild, and makes sure I don't end up with an ever-growing hairball of dotfile madness.

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#39

Post by 0x142857 » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

nobody mentioned mackup? https://github.com/lra/mackup

Re: Ask HN: What do you use to manage dotfiles?

#40

Post by 0x142857 » Wed, Feb 10, 2016, 11:52 AM UTC

nobody mentioned mackup? https://github.com/lra/mackup