dotfiles

My personal dot files.

Usage

See Create a New Repo to create your own dotfiles repository for the first time.

See Copy Dotfiles to Another Machine to migrate your dotfiles to a new machine.

See Set Up Permanent Aliases to set up custom short-cut commands.

See MISC for additional instructions.

Create a New Repo

Create your own dotfiles repo and sync with your machine.

Step 0

Create an empty repo on GitHub.

Step 1

Create a new bare Git repo to store the history for your dotfiles.

git init --bare $HOME/dotfiles

Step 2

Tell Git that it should use your home directory as the snapshot for this bare Git repo.

Linux/MacOS

Note: See Set Up Permanent Aliases to set this command permanently.

alias dotgit='git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

Windows (PowerShell)

First, create a function.

function dotgitsetup { git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME @args }

Then assign that function to an alias.

Note: See Set Up Permanent Aliases to set this command permanently.

Set-Alias -Name dotgit -Value dotgitsetup

Step 3

Tell Git that this repo should not display all untracked files.

dotgit config status.showUntrackedFiles no

Step 4

Add files and commit.

Note: Whenever you want to add a new dotfile to your Git repo, use your aliased Git command.

dotgit status

Add individual files (recommended).

dotgit add dotfile1 dotfile2

Note: It is not recommended to run dotgit add . as this will add all files under your home directory.

dotgit commit -m "add git dotfiles"

dotgit remote add origin https://github.com/waldronmatt/dotfiles.git

dotgit push --set-upstream origin main

Copy Dotfiles to Another Machine

This section provides instructions for migrating your dotfiles repo on Github to your local machine.

Step 1

Clone your repo onto the new machine as a non-bare repository.

git clone --separate-git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles https://github.com/waldronmatt/dotfiles.git dotfiles-tmp

Step 2

Copy the snapshot from your temporary directory to the correct locations on your new machine.

Linux/MacOS

rsync --recursive --verbose --exclude '.git' dotfiles-tmp/ $HOME/

Windows (PowerShell)

Copy-Item -Path "$HOME\dotfiles-tmp\*" -Destination "$HOME/" -Recurse -Exclude ".git"

Step 3

Remove the temporary directory.

Linux/MacOS

rm -rf dotfiles-tmp

Windows (PowerShell)

Remove-Item -Force -Recurse -Path "$HOME\dotfiles-tmp\"

Step 4

Repeat steps 2 - 4 above in the section Create a New Repo.

Set Up Permanent Aliases

Instructions for setting up permanaent aliases to more easily maintain dotfiles.

Linux/MacOS

Create a new file to store your alias configurations.

touch ~/.bash_aliases

Inside .bash_aliases, save your aliases:

alias dotgit='git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'

Have your linux system's ~/.bashrc file load your custom ~/.bash_aliases file.

if [ -e $HOME/.bash_aliases ]; then
  source $HOME/.bash_aliases
fi

Now you can run your dotgit from anywhere. Aliases will remain even with terminal/machine restarts.

Windows (PowerShell)

Enter the following command to allow scripts to run and set the execution scope to the current user.

Note: Read more about the security policy here.

set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Create a new file called profile.ps1 and save the file in the following directory.

$Home\My Documents\WindowsPowerShell\profile.ps1

Inside profile.ps1, save your aliases.

First, create a function

function dotgitsetup { git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME @args }

Then assign that function to an alias.

Set-Alias -Name dotgit -Value dotgitsetup

Save profile.ps1, and restart your PowerShell terminal.

Now you can run your dotgit from anywhere. Aliases will remain even with terminal/machine restarts.

MISC

Set up the global gitignore file

Linux/MacOS

git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore_global

Windows (PowerShell)

git config --global core.excludesfile "$Env:USERPROFILE\.gitignore_global"

References

https://stegosaurusdormant.com/bare-git-repo/

https://dev.to/bowmanjd/store-home-directory-config-files-dotfiles-in-git-using-bash-zsh-or-powershell-the-bare-repo-approach-35l3

https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles

https://www.ackama.com/blog/posts/the-best-way-to-store-your-dotfiles-a-bare-git-repository-explained

https://opensource.com/article/19/7/bash-aliases

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Getting-Started-First-Time-Git-Setup

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Customizing-Git-Git-Configuration