59 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
59 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
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# Manage dotfiles with git
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I'm managing my dotfiles with git. My method serves me well for a few
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years already and so I think it's time to write it down.
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If you think git, you might think of a dotfile repository and dozens of
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symlinks into the home directory. This is precisely what kept me from
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using git until I discovered bare repositories.
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Create your dotfile repository with the `--bare` parameter
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<pre>
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git init --bare ${HOME}/.cfg
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</pre>
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This creates only a folder for git control files, which normally reside
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inside the `.git` folder within the repository.
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You can now tell git to use `${HOME}` as your work-tree directory. This
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makes git handle your home directory like all the files would be within
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the git repository. Now you can:
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<pre>
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git --git-dir=${HOME}/.cfg/ --work-tree=${HOME} add .vimrc
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git --git-dir=${HOME}/.cfg/ --work-tree=${HOME} commit -m "my .vimrc"
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</pre>
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If course it is silly to type out such a long command every time you
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want to interract with your dotfiles. So why not create an alias?
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<pre>
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alias config='git --git-dir=${HOME}/.cfg/ --work-tree=${HOME}'
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</pre>
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Put this in your `~/.bashrc` or `~/.kshrc` and you can now use the command
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`config` in the same way you usually use git.
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<pre>
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config add .vimrc
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config commit -m "my vimrc"
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</pre>
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Maybe you have been brave and typed `config status` already. This will
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list the content of your whole home directory as "untracked files". This
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is not what we want. We can run `git config` and tell it to stop doing
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this. But of course we must run our git, which is called `config`.
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<pre>
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config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
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</pre>
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Now git status will only check what's being tracked. So if you add
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your vimrc file and later change it, `config status` will show it,
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`config diff` will diff it...
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You can now use the power of git with your new `config` command.
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The solution is not perfect, but it comes pretty close...
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