Dotfiles backup using a bare repository

This approach is following The best way to store your dotfiles: A bare Git repository article. I just changed the alias and destination folder a bit:

Create new bare repo from scratch

cd ~
git init --bare $HOME/._dotfiles.git
alias dot='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/._dotfiles.git/ --work-tree=$HOME'
dot config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

At this point the article has a command to append the alias to .bashrc. But since my bash profile is a bit more elaborated, I just added it manually in /.config/bash/.aliases.

In my case then I am using dot status, dot add, dot commit, etc.

Clone bare repo in new machine

I actually use this shell script to automate my desktop setup. One of the options is actually cloning this repo as a bare repo.

If you want to do this manually, make sure you backup these files / folders in your machine, to avoid conflicts. How I do it:

echo Clone bare repo using https (to avoid requiring .ssh key)
git clone --bare https://github.com/zigotica/tilde.git $HOME/._dotfiles.git

echo Hide untracked files
/opt/homebrew/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/._dotfiles.git/ --work-tree=$HOME config status.showUntrackedFiles no

echo Add bare repo to .gitignore
echo ._dotfiles.git >> $HOME/.gitignore

echo backup current dotfiles
mv $HOME/.config $HOME/.config.bk
mv $HOME/.bash_profile $HOME/.bash_profile.bk
mv $HOME/.bashrc $HOME/.bashrc.bk
mv $HOME/.tmux.conf $HOME/.tmux.conf.bk
mv $HOME/readme.md $HOME/readme.md.bk

echo Checkout
cd $HOME && /opt/homebrew/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/._dotfiles.git/ --work-tree=$HOME checkout

echo update remote url to use ssh
/opt/homebrew/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/._dotfiles.git/ --work-tree=$HOME remote set-url origin git@github.com:zigotica/tilde.git

echo copy .ssh_bk encrypted files into .ssh and decrypt them
mkdir $HOME/.ssh && cp $HOME/.ssh_bk/* $HOME/.ssh/ && ansible-vault decrypt $HOME/.ssh/*

echo DONE
echo Note that some of these changes require a logout/restart to take effect

...and you're good to go.

Please note, in my case, I am keeping my ssh keys and config encrypted in a folder inside this repo (.ssh_bk). To encrypt/decrypt I am using ansible-vault on all the files of this folder, for instance, ansible-vault encrypt $HOME/.ssh/*, and ansible-vault decrypt $HOME/.ssh/*. In both cases, it will prompt for a password and use AES256. In the example above, I copy the encrypted files to a proper .ssh folder when cloning the repo, then decrypt them. This way the decrypted files will never be part of the repo.

Finally, once resourcing or restarting the shell, I would be using dot status, dot add, dot commit, etc. since they are part of my aliases.