Dotfiles

My configuration environment, managed with GNU Stow and Git Submodules.

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

Clone recursively to pull down the repo, Oh My Zsh, themes, and plugins in one single command.

git clone --recursive [email protected]:jhileman07/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

2. Clean Default Configs

If the OS created default config files (like .bashrc or .zshrc), delete them so Stow can replace them with symlinks.

rm -rf ~/.zshrc ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile ~/.oh-my-zsh

3. Stow Packages

Symlink the configurations to your home directory.

cd ~/dotfiles
stow */

4. Finalize

A. Create Local Secrets Create the machine-specific secrets file (ignored by git).

touch ~/.zshrc.local
# Add: export GITHUB_TOKEN="your_token_here"

B. Initialize Tmux Plugins

1. Start tmux: tmux
2. Press Prefix + I (Capital i) to install the plugins via TPM.

C. Set Default Shell

chsh -s $(which zsh)
exec zsh

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📂 How It Works

Submodule Architecture

I use Git Submodules for all dependencies. This ensures 100% reproducibility without relying on external install scripts.

• Shell: zsh/.oh-my-zsh → Symlinked to ~/.oh-my-zsh.
• Plugins: zsh/custom/ → Pointed to by $ZSH_CUSTOM in .zshrc.
• Tmux: tmux/.config/tmux/plugins/tpm → Symlinked to ~/.config/tmux/plugins/tpm.

The "Clean Home" Strategy

• Zsh Plugins: The zsh/custom directory is ignored by Stow (via .stow-local-ignore) so it doesn't pollute ~. The .zshrc points directly to the repo path.
• Tmux Plugins: The plugins/ folder in Tmux contains a .gitignore that ignores everything except the TPM submodule. This keeps the repo clean while allowing TPM to download plugins freely.

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Management

Adding a New Zsh Plugin

1. Add it as a submodule:

cd ~/dotfiles
git submodule add [email protected]:username/repo.git zsh/custom/plugins/repo

2. Add repo to the plugins=(...) list in zsh/.zshrc.
3. Commit changes.

Updating Everything

Update the repo and all submodules (OMZ, themes, plugins) to their latest remote versions:

git pull
git submodule update --remote --merge