Manage Dotfiles using Git

WARNING

When managing dotfiles, always be cautious about sensitive information that may be included in configuration files. Dotfiles can contain personal, authentication, and application-specific data that should never be shared or exposed. Always check the files before comiting them.

Setup

1. Initialize a Bare Git Repository
   • git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles
2. Create a Git Alias for Easy Access
   • alias dotfiles='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
   • also add this to your shell config ~/.bashrc / ~/.zshrc etc.. using nano
3. Ignore untracked Files
   • dotfiles config status.showUntrackedFiles no
4. Add your files to the git repo
   • dotfiles add ~./config/test
   • add files/folders as needed
5. push to git remote
   • dotfiles remote add origin https://github.com/youruser/dotfiles.git
   • dotfiles push -u origin main

Restore

1. Clone Repo
   • git clone --bare [email protected]:youruser/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles
2. create the alias (see step 2 in Setup)
3. Checkout the files
   • dotfiles checkout
4. Ignore untracked Files
   • dotfiles config status.showUntrackedFiles no

When git complains about existing files, move them somewhere else temporarily