51–60 of 74 posts
just setup a bare repo and call it a day. https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles original thread on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11070797
This is how I manage my dotfiles, and it has worked pretty well for me.
All you need is a symlink script that symlinks files in ~ to ~/path/to/your/dotfiles https://github.com/pprotas/dotfiles/blob/main/symlink.sh That's it.
I'm sorry, but running `rm -rf ...` in a script against $HOME is a bit too reckless for me. Maybe you haven't lost data from this yet, but this is where Chezmoi has nice guardrails and protects against, e.g., modifications or additions accidentally being made to $HOME instead of the dotfiles dir, which look like they would be silently blown out by your current process. Just my 2¢ from someone who used to do it this w…
All you need is a symlink script that symlinks files in ~ to ~/path/to/your/dotfiles https://github.com/pprotas/dotfiles/blob/main/symlink.sh That's it.
I'm sorry, but running `rm -rf ...` in a script against $HOME is a bit too reckless for me. Maybe you haven't lost data from this yet, but this is where Chezmoi has nice guardrails and protects against, e.g., modifications or additions accidentally being made to $HOME instead of the dotfiles dir, which look like they would be silently blown out by your current process. Just my 2¢ from someone who used to do it this w…
EDIT: Unless I have a dir called "*" in my dotfiles, but at that point I deserve to have my home dir removed :P ZSH also asks for confirmation first
My own dotfiles: https://github.com/epiccoleman/dotfiles
For me, I have found nix home manager to be the most effective solution for managing my dotfiles. The migration process was easy, and I was able to use it to replace my sim link script with it's file directives. It also integrates well with my Nixos Systems.
The added bonus is:
1. No need for complicated directory structures that a symlink-like script needs to manage.
2. Dotfile management coupled with package management. Dotfiles only make sense as configuration to packages you have - why would you not tie these together?
3. Minor-to-no tweaks required to have a fully reproduced setup on any machine.
Seriously, I transitioned my dotfiles from my NixOS machine at home to my work-issued M2 within... an hour?
I will never not evangelize Nix.
All you need is a symlink script that symlinks files in ~ to ~/path/to/your/dotfiles https://github.com/pprotas/dotfiles/blob/main/symlink.sh That's it.
Sure, maybe. Though eventually one may find lots of edge cases. What about files in the root that get deleted? What about programs that put wanted state within config dirs? What about programs that ignore symlinked files? What about when you’re hacking on your dotfiles and break everything because the active config is the config being edited? What about when you need to vary based on system? What about… I mean, yea,…
For me, I have found nix home manager to be the most effective solution for managing my dotfiles. The migration process was easy, and I was able to use it to replace my sim link script with it's file directives. It also integrates well with my Nixos Systems.
On the upside: you do get a whole purpose-build language for configuring your system, piecing together your configurations dynamically, installing your packages and so much more.
Ability to install packages is another huge thing. Home-Manager does not just configure my tools, it also installs them (including my DE), so I can get started with my custom config on a new system in a matter of minutes.
alias homegit="git --work-tree=$HOME --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles.git"
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is how I manage my dotfiles, and it has worked pretty well for me.
How do you handle differences between machines (e.g. between Linux and macOS)? How do you handle secrets?
I imagine these solutions would scale poorly if I had a large number (dozens? hundreds?) of machines which all needed unique configurations, or if I used more tools which needed per-machine configuration, or if I needed to stick secrets in configuration files for some reason. Luckily for me, that's not the case, and my system has served me quite well as a result.