I’ve been searching the best way to manage my dotfiles using git.
After seeing this video and checking this tutorial I decided to give it a go.
I will be using keybase as my (private) git repository.
Create and setup repository
- Create a repository in keybase using the application
- Create a bare repository
mkdir -p $HOME/.dotfiles
git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles
alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles --work-tree=$HOME'
dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
echo "alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles --work-tree=$HOME'" >> $HOME/.zshrc
Adding files
- Add a first file to test if everything is OK
dotfiles status
dotfiles add .vimrc
dotfiles commit -m "Add vimrc"
dotfiles remote add origin keybase://private/your_username/dotfiles
dotfiles push -u origin master
- Every time you want to add a new file
dotfiles add .bashrc
dotfiles commit -m "Add bashrc"
dotfiles add .zshrc
dotfiles commit -m "Add zshrc"
dotfiles push
Dotfiles in a new system
- In a new system, you can get your dotfiles by:
alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles --work-tree=$HOME'
echo ".dotfiles" >> .gitignore
git clone --bare keybase://private/your_username/dotfiles $HOME/.dotfiles
dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
mkdir -p $HOME/.dotfiles-backup
dotfiles checkout
if [ $? = 0 ]; then
echo "Checked out config.";
else
echo "Backing up pre-existing dot files.";
dotfiles checkout 2>&1 | egrep "\s+\." | awk {'print $1'} | xargs -I{} mv {} $HOME/.dotfiles-backup/{}
fi;
dotfiles checkout
- Then, every time you want to refresh your dotfiles
dotfiles pull