How to Manage Dotfiles on Linux

Today I talk about how I manage my dotfiles.
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==== Time Stamps ====
0:00 Intro
1:16 My Repo
2:24 Sym Link Mania
5:42 My Script
7:00 Conclusions
#tut #linux #thelinuxcast

[@TheLinuxCast]

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[@Little-bird-told-me]

Why can't we just "git" the entire .config directory? Wouldn't that be a simpler way to manage dotfiles? for e.g. My _".config directory"_ is about 250 mb which is well below the space limit in Gitlab/hub. Ofcoruse I will keep it private. Granted you make have to symlink a few files like .bashrc which reside outside, but the majority of config files sit inside .config.

[@jackob334]

but how do you symlink ssh ? when i tried it didn't work but i don't remeber why. i believe of the nature of how ssh works and the maintainer resisting to change that is when i gave up on it

[@laniusdev]

I think you would really like stow, because it just creates symlinks, so you still have control. Although for this to work you would need to have a little different structure in your dotfiles, like ~/myrepo/i3/.config/i3 (so first i3 directory acts as root/home directory) and then you symlink your stuff like this: "stow -d ~/myrepo -t ~ i3" (where -d is source dir, -t is target dir, and i3 is module name, so basically contents of i3 folder in myrepo). If e.g. .config/i3 directory already exists in your $HOME, then it would symlink all the files individually, as it won't overwrite anything, and just keeps the folder structure.

[@HeCodes2Much]

I really like stow for this reason too :)

[@TownspersonB]

I was going to say his method is just a reinvention of stow, but less flexible. I used to use stow, but I didn't like seeing all those sym link paths when using stuff like Telescope in Neovim, so I switched to Chezmoi, which is similar to stow but makes copies instead of sym links.

[@brunofunnie]

wow, just mixed the github idea with stow... magical! Thanks

[@HeCodes2Much]

@@TownspersonB does it keep it in sync really well too?

[@TownspersonB]

​@@HeCodes2Much Yup, can use chezmoi status, add, re-add, apply, diff, update, and more commands to manage the files. So if you "add" a file from your config, it adds it to the git repo and you can pull that repo and then "apply" the files to your config on other machines. Then when you change the files in your config, you can see it with "status" and "diff", and even just run a "re-add" to re-add all the files that have changed from your config to your repo. Then pull the git repo on other machines and "apply" the changes. The git repo is in your .local/share directory, so it's easy enough to add that to an ignore file to keep it out of searches for stuff like Telescope in Neovim.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

Nice system. I backup my dot files in two locations. I have a series of scripts which give me finer control to both backup and restore. My files physically exist in my home directory. Anyway, it’s my system and I love it. Thanks for sharing. Cool idea.

[@niccolofaraco24]

Great video, Matt! Expert “ricers” probably have their own method, but this is simple and very useful for newcomers! By the way, JFYI you can pass a second argument to ‘git clone’ specifying the name of the cloned folder ( ‘git clone myrepo’ in your case), rather than using the ‘mv’ command afterwards.

[@anon_y_mousse]

Good advice. I use that all the time when they name their repo something silly that's hard to type or remember.

[@twb0109]

For your setup, GNU stow would be a great way to manage them

[@samgould8567]

Absolutely. I’ve tried a bunch of different dotfile management techniques and the best system for me is GNU stow with a Makefile wrapper.

[@wyfyj]

Thanks for the content Matt. I do wish more people would share knowledge like this.

[@lucaslopes1260]

I also used to create symlinks on my .config. But then I turned the .config directory itself into a git repository. From there I can push, pull and even switch branches.

[@ribbanya]

Personally I find chezmoi to be way easier for managing multiple devices (like a desktop and a laptop, or different operating systems). It requires you to learn the templating system to be effective, though.

[@Bruces-Eclectic-World]

I'm like you Matt. I do mine manually too. I never thought of using sim-links like that, cool. I do the sim-link trick on my server to some folders and it does work great. Like the script it is a cool idea. I did not think of using my Git repo as my dot folder. Will have to give that some thought... 🤔 Thanks Matt! LLAP 🖖

[@ArniesTech]

Started focussing more on .Files too. Especially now that I use a separate /home partition and Inwant to migrate my personal settings when distro switching 💪🙏

[@KonstantWalker]

Thank you kind sir, really enjoyed this

[@xypsilonzett4708]

Thanks for sharing. I took this as an opportunity to look into stow again and this time I got it. Thanks also to Jake Wiesler for "Manage Your Dotfiles Like a Superhero" (with stow).

[@Flackon]

+1 for just using stow. Btw it’s probably better to do the repo rename on the git clone command. I’ve had weird issues with git after renaming a repo manually after cloning

[@fulcain8596]

Great video man! simple and straight to the point. I've learned a lot! Thank you.

[@TateyRG]

Stow can do the same job for you with just a couple of commands.

[@TheLinuxCast]

As I said in the video, I want full control, and I don't want to rely on someone else's script

[@twb0109]

@@TheLinuxCast stow gives you full control, you manually tell stow what folder you want to stow and then it will symlink it, taking each folder in the repo as a home directory. So if you want to symlink bspwm, you create a structure like this one: myrepo/bspwm/.config/bspwm/bspwmrc And then run `stow bspwm` inside of myrepo, it'll take care of symlinking the files to ~/.config/*

[@TheLinuxCast]

As I said, I don't want to rely on someone else's script or app to do this.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

@@TheLinuxCast I feel the same way.

[@AliensInc.]

Why not use Git Bare Repository. Got that from DT and it's so easy and no need for symlinks

[@TheLinuxCast]

Could never figure that out even with his tutorial.

[@Chris-ip8uv]

@@TheLinuxCast Agreed - it was a tad confusing. I managed to fumble my way through it and I use a git bare from time to time. I do prefer your process simply because it seems to follow the KISS process.

[@noferblatz]

This would be simpler if you house your /home directory on its own hard drive, and mount that at /home. This simplifies having all your config and home files available for any disto you switch to.

[@donaldmickunas8552]

I’ve had issues doing it this way. Not all configs work the same in every distro. However, I’m glad it works for you,

[@Perry....]

Tried that once and got burned.. never again 💀

[@alonso0188]

Thanks man.

[@bastiand.771]

You should take a look at "stow" which is a simple peel program meant to handle for files. It does exactly what your script does except more automatically.

[@kwamedevopsengineer7633]

Thanks!

[@TheLinuxCast]

Thank you!

[@oalfodr]

My preferred way was just initiating git repo in my home. Downside is that every new file or directory I don't want commited must be ignored but that is also a good thing since no junk files can sneak up on my system.

[@castlesnake]

You can invert this and whitelist only the things that you want added instead which I find more convenient. Look up the '!' operator

[@oalfodr]

@@castlesnake I like seeing all new stuff. I am using inversion for some exceptions to my blacklist

[@hernanvalenzuela874]

what color palette do you use?

[@Chris-ip8uv]

Nice work, Matt! Now, how do you manage your dots that fall under your $HOME directory?

[@TheLinuxCast]

Same way. Symlinks

[@alexandrosvangelatos9979]

I think you should look into stow. With it, it won't matter which distro you are on.

[@MrCradleman]

I use chezmoi + keepassxc which give me a possibility to keep passes, ssh key and all important information separate from git repo. You way is pretty dangerous and you didn't mention this in your video. A lot of people push their passes to github/gitlab and where are a lot of bots monitored new repos in order to steal them

[@yourlinuxguy]

Well I am new to this managing and to the Linux? For Now, I have a few options to search GNU STOW, Git Bare Repo & Using the Symlinks. Manual symlinks look really simple and easy for my small config files now. Git bare repo was confusing I watched DT, Stow is kinda similar to simlinks, but it automates the things and you have to make and ignore list.

[@andressalazargaleano6419]

I use ansible to handle installation and symlink creation

[@JadKanounji]

a suggestion for the script: why not make your .config folder itself a symlink to my my-repo? if you wouldn't want to do that, then another suggestion would be to loop over the contents of the folder and let it create your symbolic links automatically rather than having to add a new line whenever there's a new folder in your repo?

[@msor6108]

I am using a git bare repo. I used to use stow before that. I also tried to use home-manager since I was on NixOS but I really didn't like it.

[@niranet2463]

How come you've never made a custom gtk or qt theme?

[@alexstone691]

I used to use chezmoi, some other dotfiles managers, stow but they either suck to use on windows, or dont allow me to easily automate setting up vim for example So.. i went the nerd way and use custom scripts for linking or copyinf the files the config install scripts are like 10 lines very simple suprisingly

[@franciscoromero7386]

What if you try chezmoi? It gives you control and is a lot easier.

[@waterhermit7314]

Haven't watched it yet, but why not use stow?

[@TheLinuxCast]

Probably should watch it.

[@Norbert9696]

Symlink gang!

[@anon_y_mousse]

Best thing about symlink gang is they can't touch us. ;)

[@Little-bird-told-me]

Why can't we just "git" the entire .config directory? Wouldn't that be a simpler way to manage dotfiles? for e.g. My _".config directory"_ is about 250 mb which is well below the space limit in Gitlab/hub. Ofcoruse I will keep it private. Granted you make have to symlink a few files like .bashrc which reside outside, but the majority of config files sit inside .config.

[@Johnson_meta]

loves from china. I have question for you,how did you add icons in ls outputs.

[@yourlinuxguy]

By using the lsd package.

[@kwamedevopsengineer7633]

Thanks a lot . . for explaning the concept of dotfiles.

[@ralfbaechle]

The method isn't new and there's nothing fundamentally wrong or superior to it. The one obstacle I see is git is not for everybody. I know a lot of people just don't understand git For those folks i suggest their configuration management system of choice or even keeping their set of config files in a directory that can be distributed by say rsync.

[@jwisemanm]

Why don't you just use a bare git repository? It accomplishes basically the same results, with less work.

[@foss_land]

i prefer git --bare repo its more easy and more pratique .

[@ForeverZer0]

This is horrible advice, and not a sane way to ever suggest to others. Create a directory in your home. Create a git repo inside of it, passing the "--bare" flag. Create an alias in your favorite shell, like: alias dot='git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME' Now just add any file you want from anywhere in your home directory, but instead of using "git", you can use your alias "dot". No symlinks. No mess. No git repository in $HOME. No duplicates.