Dotfiles (Soft Link)

Prerequisite §

Setup Git SSH

Setup §

Create a new directory in your $HOME. Call it dotfiles.

mkdir ~/dotfiles

Initialize a Git repo in the dotfiles directory.

cd ~/dotfiles
git init

You can sync this repo to GitHub.

Adding Files §

Move the file into ~/dotfiles, then create a soft link back to it’s original location.

mv ~/.zshrc ~/dotfiles/
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/.zshrc ~/.zshrc

Removing Files §

Remove the symlink, then move it’s ~/dotfiles equivalent into it’s proper place.

rm ~/.zshrc
mv ~/dotfiles/.zshrc ~/.zshrc

Deploy on a New Machine §

This process is called “bootstrapping”.

Clone the repo, then soft link the files manually.

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/username/dotfiles

Then manually soft link the files to their locations.

rm ~/.zshrc
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/.zshrc ~/.zshrc

Bonus §

Make this process easier with a few scripts.

Add File Function §

Source this script and

### dotfiles/manage_file.sh ###
 
DOT_PATH=~/dotfiles
 
dot_add() {
	mv $1 $DOT_PATH/
	ln -sf $DOT_PATH/$1 $1
}
 
dot_rm() {
	rm $1
	mv $DOT_PATH/$1 $1
}

Bootstrapper Script §

You can write a script to bootstrap your dotfiles automatically.

### dotfiles/bootstrapper.sh ###
 
# zshrc
ZSHRC_PATH=.zshrc
rm ~/$ZSHRC_PATH
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/$ZSHRC_PATH ~/$ZSHRC_PATH
 
# alacritty
ALACRITY_PATH=.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml
 
rm ~/$ALACRITTY_PATH
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/$ALACRITTY_PATH ~/$ALACRITTY_PATH
...