tcatm/dotfiles

http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html

The procedure is simple. I created the ${HOME}/dotfiles directory and then 
inside it I made subdirectories for all the programs whose cofigurations I 
wanted to manage. Inside each of those directories, I moved in all the 
appropriate files, maintaining the directory structure of my home directory. 
So, if a file normally resides at the top level of your home directory, it 
would go into the top level of the program's subdirectory. If a file normally 
goes in the default ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/${PKGNAME} location 
(${HOME}/.config/${PKGNAME}), then it would instead go in 
${HOME}/dotfiles/${PKGNAME}/.config/${PKGNAME} and so on. Finally, from the 
dotfiles directory, you just run $ stow $PKGNAME and Stow will symlink all the 
package's configuration files to the appropriate locations. It's then easy to 
make the dotfiles a VCS repository so you can keep track of changes you make 
(plus it makes it so much easier to share configurations between different 
computers, which was my main reason to do it).

For example, let's say you want to manage the configuration for Bash, VIM and 
Uzbl. Bash has a couple files in the top-level directory; VIM typically has 
your .vimrc file on the top-level and a .vim directory; and Uzbl has files in 
${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/uzbl and ${XDG_DATA_HOME}/uzbl. So, your home directory 
looks like this:

home/
    brandon/
        .config/
            uzbl/
                [...some files]
        .local/
            share/
                uzbl/
                    [...some files]
        .vim/
            [...some files]
        .bashrc
        .bash_profile
        .bash_logout
        .vimrc

You would then create a dotfiles subdirectory and move all the files there:

home/
    /brandon/
        .config/
        .local/
            .share/
        dotfiles/
            bash/
                .bashrc
                .bash_profile
                .bash_logout
            uzbl/
                .config/
                    uzbl/
                        [...some files]
                .local/
                    share/
                        uzbl/
                            [...some files]
            vim/
                .vim/
                    [...some files]
                .vimrc
Then, perform the following commands:

$ cd ~/dotfiles
$ stow bash
$ stow uzbl
$ stow vim

And, voila, all your config files (well, symbolic links to them) are all in the 
correct place, however disorganized that might be, while the actual files are 
all neatly organized in your dotfiles directory, which is easily turned into a 
VCS repo. One handy thing is that if you use multiple computers, which may not 
have the same software installed on them, you can pick and choose which 
configurations to install when you need them. All of your dotfiles are always 
available in your dotfiles directory, but if you don't need the configuration 
for one program, you simply don't Stow it and thus it does not clutter your 
home directory.