Here’s my take on how to store “dotfiles” in git with least pain…
Dotfiles
“dotfiles” are those files in a linux home dir that store setup, files like
.bashrc, .gitconfig, .vimrc.
This post is based largely on an Atlassian post, though cut down to the absolute basics.
Create local repo
First setup an empty repo, and a config alias for git, just for this repo
(all existing git aliases will still work with config).
git init --bare $HOME/.cfg
alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.cfg/ --work-tree=$HOME'
config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
echo "alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.cfg/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> $HOME/.bash_aliases
Add all the files to be version controlled:
cd $HOME
config add .profile
config add .bashrc
config add .bash_aliases
config add .vimrc
Some like .ssh and .kube dirs might need a little more work (and ONLY
do these if the remote repo will not be publically accessible):
echo -e 'agents/\nagent.env' > .ssh/.gitignore
config add .ssh
echo -e 'cache/\nhttp-cache/' > .kube/.gitignore
config add .kube
This is just so doing e.g. config add .ssh won’t add the unwanted files.
Any untracked files are ignored due to the config that was set on the repo.
To prevent it being possible to recursively add the local repo:
echo '.cfg/' >> .gitignore
config add .gitignore
Any command or alias that can be issue with git can now be issued with
config, and can be issued from anywhere in the directory tree, but will always
refer to the home dir e.g.
/home/me/myrepos/mywork$ config status
On branch master
No commits yet
Changes to be committed:
(use "git rm --cached <file>..." to unstage)
new file: .ansible.cfg
new file: .bash_aliases
new file: .bash_logout
...
Create remote repo
Commit any pending changes with e.g.
config commit -m 'first commit'
Create a completely empty repo on a remote repository - suggested repo
naming cfg_{machine-name} or just cfg.
Add this as a remote to the config repo and push changes:
config remote add origin ssh://git@bitbucket.myhost.com/~me/cfg_my-machine.git
config push --set-upstream origin master
If the repo is accessed via ssh, be sure to store the key file elsewhere so that the data can be cloned from the repo on any new install.
Using on a new install
alias
First setup a temporary version of the config alias
alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.cfg/ --work-tree=$HOME'
ssh creds
If the repo requires ssh authentication, retrieve the key file onto the new system, and make sure permissions are locked down. Then start the ssh agent and add the key:
cp {somewhere}/my-key ~/.ssh
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/my-key
eval $(ssh-agent -s)
ssh-add ~/.ssh/my-key
get files
Clone the repo and checkout
git clone --bare <git-repo-url> $HOME/.cfg
config checkout
Any existing files of the same name will cause errors so backup or remove and repeat the checkout command.
Set the clone to ignore untracked files:
config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
Logout and back in to pickup new .bashrc, .profile, aliases etc.
That should be it!