$HOME in git via whitelisting. No symlinks, scripts, or dependencies, just git.

Requirements

git
an * in ~/.gitignore
that's it

How it works

Starting from scratch

~:$ git init
~:$ echo '*' > .gitignore

# now, you'll need to force-add files you want to track (-f force-adds ignored files)

~:$ git add -f .gitignore
~:$ git commit -m 'Ignore all via .gitignore'

~:$ git add -f .bashrc .tmux.conf .vimrc
~:$ git commit -m 'Add some dotfiles'

Checking out dotfiles on a new system

~:$ git init
~:$ git remote add origin https://github.com/qjcg/dotfiles
~:$ git remote update
~:$ git checkout -t origin/master [-f]

Different environments, different configurations

Use the master branch to keep track of generic config files useful accross environments.

You can create other branches as needed for different environments. These branches can be rebased onto or merged with the master branch when the master branch is updated, depending on which type of workflow you prefer.

You might also want to create private branches, only ever pushed to a private host, never shared publicly.

Useful git commands

I find the following git commands useful with this setup.

# rebase branch1 onto master branch (eg: after master has been updated)
git rebase master branch1

# hard-reset local branch1 to match remote origin/branch1
git branch -f branch1 origin/branch1

# hard-reset _currently-checked-out_ branch2 to match remote origin/branch2
git checkout -B branch2 origin/branch2

# force push all local branches to myremote
# useful after local rebasing
git push myremote --all -f

# print a high-level overview of the differences between branches
git diff --stat branch1 branch2

# another view of differences between branches
git show-branch

# list files being tracked in branch1 (add -r to descend into directories)
git ls-tree branch1