Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012) • Hacker News Board

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#111

Post by Barrin92 » Tue, Dec 29, 2020, 9:12 PM UTC

tpoacher wrote: post #105

Sounds interesting, but I can't help but wonder: > all your dotfiles are now neatly organised isn't that what .config is for? > install locally built packages in /usr/local/stow/PKGNAME-VERSION [...] so you don’t have to worry about any stray files Isn't that what /opt is for? > (HN comments live-linking to a repository) So maintain externally and export as needed. ... am I missing some really important context here?…

it just automates puttting dotfiles where they need to go. I have like two dozen different config files and every time I set up a new machine it'd be a drag to symlink everything by hand.

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#112

Post by iamtedd » Wed, Dec 30, 2020, 8:47 AM UTC

tpoacher wrote: post #104

tambourine_man wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still remember when git was the hot new version control system, so old fashioned sounds funny to me.

I had the same reaction. Stow was first released (v>1.0) in 1996, git in 2013. Yet git is the old-fashioned choice? hahah.

1.0 of Git was actually 2005.

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#113

Post by tpoacher » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:41 AM UTC

iamtedd wrote: post #112

tpoacher wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the same reaction. Stow was first released (v>1.0) in 1996, git in 2013. Yet git is the old-fashioned choice? hahah.

1.0 of Git was actually 2005.

ah cool. i just had a look in the project's releases, 2013 was the first nonzero version they had listed there. I did wonder why they didn't list a v1.0 though.

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#114

Post by LucasLarson » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 12:41 AM UTC

gumby wrote: post #66

nickjj wrote: post #29

Call me old fashioned but what's wrong with having a regular git repo anywhere you want with all of your dotfiles and them symlink those files to where they need to go? If you wanted to you could && a few symlinks and other commands into 1 copy / paste'able command to get up and running really quickly. It's also painless to manage secrets by sourcing in optional files. It also works nicely when you want files living…

Yeah, the command is literally (cd ~; ln -s source-location/{.,}[A-z]* .) which is a lot easier than installing all that stuff.

If we’re codegolfing dotfile setup, then really go crazy: `cd; ln -s source-location/{.,}[A-z]* .`

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#115

Post by bbkane » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 1:44 AM UTC

adamspiers wrote: post #101

bbkane wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Too bad that's broken for directory names: https://github.com/aspiers/stow/issues/33

Stow maintainer here. Thanks for the nudge on that, and apologies for not doing a better job. I hadn't noticed that this issue affecting so many users. I have some downtime in the coming week or two so will look at this.

Thank you! That fix will make my dotfiles repo look a lot nicer :)

Re: Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles (2012)

#116

Post by mattalbie » Thu, Dec 31, 2020, 2:48 AM UTC

smichel17 wrote: post #76

mattalbie wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this but include the symlink command in the document. That way all the links become one copy and paste.

May I recommend Makefiles? Nothing fancy, just a bunch of .PHONY targets. It's a converient way to bundle a bunch of scripts (or single arcane commands) into one file, with autocompletion.

That’s a good idea. Thanks!