[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Dotfiles Management Tools?
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       Ask HN: Dotfiles Management Tools?
        
       My customized shell script isn't as robust as it should be and I
       don't want to reinvent an inferior version of what must surely
       already exist.  What tools would you recommend for managing
       dotfiles that are robust, doesn't have external dependencies, uses
       git and are idempotent?  I'd like something that manages
       directories of files (e.g. ~/.vim/ftplugin/) in sub-directories, as
       well as in $HOME. If the tool can deal with multiple systems
       (MacOS, CentOS, debian) then even better!  Thanks!
        
       Author : mthwsjc_
       Score  : 10 points
       Date   : 2021-04-19 20:16 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
       | jmercouris wrote:
       | Gnu Stow is something I've often heard referenced. Disclaimer: I
       | have no experience using it.
        
         | andrewrothman wrote:
         | I've been using GNU Stow (with Git) for the past month to sync
         | some of my dotfiles between two laptops (Mac and Linux). It
         | took 10 minutes to get comfortable with it and it works well
         | for me.
        
         | FrenchyJiby wrote:
         | +1 For stow ("a symlink farm manager")
         | 
         | Simple usecase:                 cd ~       mkdir -p dotfiles &&
         | cd dotfiles       mkdir -p bash && cd bash       touch .bashrc
         | cd ~       stow bash  # Deploys ~/.bashrc symlinked from
         | ~/dotfiles/bash/       # More packages, version control:
         | cd ~/dotfiles       git init && git commit -am "Initial commit"
         | mkdir -p ~/dotfiles/git/       touch ~/dotfiles/git/.gitconfig
         | # deploy git package       cd ~ && stow git       # revert bash
         | "package deployment"       stow -D bash
         | 
         | I've gone a bit overboard myself (many packages, litterate
         | programming declaration of emacs config, Vagrant VM with
         | Ansible deployment etc), see
         | https://github.com/OverkillGuy/jibyconf
        
         | mgradowski wrote:
         | I use GNU Stow with a dotfiles git repo placed in $HOME. Works
         | well.
        
       | markemer wrote:
       | I've been using Chezmoi for a while now, I rather like it.
        
       | seniorivn wrote:
       | https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager is much more than
       | that, but it can be easily used as a basic dotfiles manager the
       | way you described it
        
       | zests wrote:
       | Here's a guide using a git bare repository:
       | https://www.atlassian.com/git/tutorials/dotfiles
        
         | notJim wrote:
         | I've been using this (lightly) for a couple years, and I've
         | been happy with it.
        
       | mthwsjc_ wrote:
       | chezmoi [1] looks like a tool for power-users. I'll give it a try
       | and see how it goes. It seems to be more capable (and more
       | complex) than dotbot [2]
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/twpayne/chezmoi
       | 
       | [2] https://github.com/anishathalye/dotbot#plugins
        
       | knoebber wrote:
       | Arch wiki has a nice list:
       | https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dotfiles#Tools
       | 
       | I made a dotfile management tool:
       | https://github.com/knoebber/dotfile , but it's not based on git
       | or designed for directories of files.
       | 
       | I think Chezmoi would fit your usecase well:
       | https://www.chezmoi.io/
        
       | vulcan01 wrote:
       | Although I just use git (with symlinks from ~/.dotfiles to
       | wherever the software is actually expecting the config), most
       | people I know use https://yadm.io instead.
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-19 23:02 UTC)