nemoinho/dotfiles
1
0
Fork 0
Code Issues Pull Requests Actions Packages Projects Releases Wiki Activity

Switch from the bare repository method to stow to manage my dotfiles

Browse Source 
I finally made the switch from the bare-repository method to stow to
manage my dotfiles. This brings some nice benefits, e.g. I can savely
say what file is in my dotfiles and what is missing out. Furthermore the
usage is _way_ simpler the before. Though one downside is the more
complicated removal of files, but I've documented a way which feels nice
to me as well. Finally I removed my old setup-script since I switched to
an ansible-setup anyway. So this config will eventually be applied
ansible and I don't have to care about installed software in this repo
anymore!

Reference: https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/
Reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11071754
Reference: https://gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dev-machine/
This commit is contained in:
Felix Nehrke
2025-09-05 16:43:54 +02:00
parent 78660ba340
commit f1ae24d120
4 changed files with 43 additions and 170 deletions
Download Patch File Download Diff File Expand all files Collapse all files

73
README.adoc
View File

@@ -4,42 +4,51 @@ Felix Nehrke <felix@nehrke.info>
:source-highlighter: rouge
[abstract]
I'll use the https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11071754["bare repository and alias method"] to track my dotfiles.
I use https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/[`stow`] to sync my dotfiles between the OS and this repository.
== Requirements
Install `git` and `stow` if not already present on the system.
.Install via apt on Debian/Ubuntu
[source,bash]
sudo apt install git stow
.Install via brew on macos
[source,bash]
brew install git stow
== Usage
Use all your familiar git commands but with `config` instead of `git`.
Checkout this repository into `~/dotfiles` and apply run `stow` to sync the dotfiles.
[IMPORTANT]
The directory should be loacted directly in the HOME directory.
Otherwise stow needs an additional flat `-t $HOME` everytime, which is a bit annoying!
[source,bash]
config status
config add .vimrc
config commit -m "Add vimrc"
config add .config/redshift.conf
config commit -m "Add redshift config"
config push
git clone git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles # <1>
cd $_
stow --adopt . # <2>
[ -n "$(git status --short)" ] && git restore . # <3>
== Setup
<1> Clone this repository
<2> Create symlinks for all files managed by this repository, so that the file in the $HOME points to the file in this repository
<3> In case of differences between existing files and the ones from this repository keep the version of the repository
.Quick setup
=== Removing files
If a file is going to be removed make sure to remove the linked file as well.
Otherwise we end up with a bunch of dangling files in `$HOME`!
To automatically delete these dangling links we can use a git-hook as the following.
That will remove the links pre-commit.
.Setup git-hook to automatically remove links to deleted files
[source,bash]
curl -s https://gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles/raw/branch/main/.config/dotfiles/setup-machine.sh | bash
.Clone on new machine
[source,bash]
GIT_DIR=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles
GIT_REMOTE=git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git
git clone --separate-git-dir=$GIT_DIR $GIT_REMOTE $HOME/tmp-dotfiles
rm -r ~/tmp-dotfiles
alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$GIT_DIR --work-tree=$HOME'
config checkout
config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
.Initial setup
[source,bash]
GIT_DIR=$HOME/Development/nemoinho/gitea.nehrke.info/nemoinho/dotfiles
GIT_REMOTE=git@gitea.nehrke.info:nemoinho/dotfiles.git
git init --bare -b main $GIT_DIR
alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$GIT_DIR --work-tree=$HOME'
config config status.showUntrackedFiles no
config remote add origin $GIT_REMOTE
config push -u origin main
cat <<EOF > .git/hooks/pre-commit
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -e
git status --short | grep -E '^D' | sed s/...// | while read f
do
test -L "\$HOME/\$f" && rm "\$HOME/\$f"
done
EOF
chmod +x .git/hooks/pre-commit