Managing dotfiles with Git

#git #dotfiles

Instructions for managing your dotfiles with Git. Works in Linux and Windows.

Steps

Checkout bare repository 

git clone --bare <remote-git-repo-url> <checkout-dir>
  • replace <remote-git-repo-url> with the repository URL
  • replace <checkout-dir> witht he checkout location (NOT the home folder)

Add alias to Git global config 

git config --global alias.dotfiles '!git --git-dir=<checkout-dir> --work-tree=<home-dir>'
  • replace <checkout-dir> with the chckout location
  • replace <home-dir> with the home folder (e.g. /home/brewster or c:/users/brewster)

Checkout 

git dotfiles checkout

Next steps

Create a branch for the new machine 

git dotfiles checkout -b 202409-new-machine-name

Make changes specifically for this new-machine-name 

git dotfiles add ~/.config/app/app.config

git dotfiles commit -m "added new app config file"
git dotfiles push

If changes are applicable to all environments, merge into main via a feature branch with a single commit.

Windows example

Make sure to use forward-slashes in alias paths: 

git clone --bare https://github.com/myname/dotfiles C:\Users\myname\repos\dotfiles

git config --global alias.dotfiles '!git --git-dir=c:/users/myname/repos/dotfiles --work-tree=c:/users/myname'

git dotfiles checkout
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