My Dotfile Configuration

This is my attempt at using stow to backup my dotfiles. Stow is a GNU symlink farm manager which helps to manage symbolic links.

Each subfolder in the .dotfiles repository is stores a dotfile for a particular program (e.g. zsh/nvim)

How to add a symlink

1. If the original dotfile is stored at ~/.config/nvim/lua/init.lua, then create the folder ~/.dotfiles/neovim/.config/nvim/lua/init.lua
2. cd ~/.dotfiles
3. stow -vt ~ [app].

Deleting a symlink

1. cd ~/.dotfiles
2. stow -Dt ~ [app]

Setting up dotfiles in a new computer

1. Clone the repo
2. cd ~/dotfiles
3. stow -vt ~ */

Understanding the stow command

• -v is verbose
• -t is target directory (The next argument is the target directory, usually ~)
• ending argument is which directories to use for symlinks
• -n flag is to see what stow intends to execute (by reading the verbose output). Remove the flag to actually execute the command.
• --adopt to firstly move the file over to .dotfiles and then create a symlink from there (useful for setting up stow)
• e.g. the git package only tracks .gitconfig Run stow --adopt -nv git (moves .gitconfig into .dotfiles/git/.gitconfig and then create symlink)

Reddit link on how to use stow