On: Dotfiles are your Digital Backpack

[olalonde]

I've been using rcm (https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm) for managing my dotfiles and strongly recommend it. It works by symlinking everything from your dotfiles directory to your home directory and gets out of the way. You can also do more advanced stuff like run "hook" scripts at first install or only install a subset of dotfiles using tags. Here's my rcm repo in case anyone is curious: https://github.com/olalonde/dotfiles

[Doches → olalonde]

A different solution, that's a little more embedded in the Github and Ruby world: homesick (https://github.com/technicalpickles/homesick).

[alphapapa → Doches]

I use the Bash version, homeshick. Works great. https://github.com/andsens/homeshick

[jez → olalonde]

+1 for rcm

I think it works particularly well when you have a dotfiles setup where specific pieces of the setup differ by host but the rest is largely the same. For example, I've broken my zshrc, bashrc, and gitconfig into the common parts and the host specific parts to maximize DRY and maintainablity.

It's also on GitHub if anyone's curious about the setup

https://github.com/jez/dotfiles/blob/master/bash_profile https://github.com/jez/dotfiles/blob/master/zshrc

[tacone → olalonde]

I also use it and recommend it. I didn't know about the hook script feature and will be looking for it.

My baby dotfiles here: https://github.com/tacone/dotfiles