.dotfiles

A repository holding dot and conf files

Starting from Scratch

git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles
alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
echo "alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> $HOME/.zshenv

• The first line creates a folder ~/.dotfiles is a Git bare repository that will track the configuration files.
• Next lines create an alias config which will be used instead of the regular git to interact with the configuration repository.
• Set a flag -local to the repository to hide files that are not being explicitly tracked. This is so config status and other commands can be used later, files that should not be tracked will not show up as untracked.
• Also you can add the alias definition by hand or use the the fourth line provided for convenience.

The above lines are packaged nto a snippet in gist and linked from git.io. So things can be set up with:

curl -Lks https://git.io/JT4bp | /bin/zsh

After the setup has been executed any file within the $HOME folder can be versioned with normal commands, replacing git with the newly created config alias, like:

config status
config add .vimrc
config commit -m "Add vimrc"
config add .bashrc
config commit -m "Add bashrc"
config push

Install dotfiles onto a new system

• Prior to the installation ensure the alias below is in the .zsh file:

alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

• Ensure the source repository ignores the folder where it is cloned, so that there aren't recursion problems:

echo ".dotfiles" >> .gitignore

• Clone dotfiles into a bare repository in your $HOME:

git clone --bare <git-repo-url> $HOME/.dotfiles

• Checkout the actual content from the bare repository to $HOME:

config checkout

• Set the flag showUntrackedFiles to no on this specific (local) repository:

config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

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Taken from Nicola Paolucci article.