Original image by キノスケ
Dotfiles are similar to what Windows users would call hidden files, and they
are often used to customize UNIX systems.
Since you're here, surely you know what .bashrc
or .profile
files do, right?
Dotfiles are those files.
The name dotfile comes from a UNIX convention where hidden file's name
starts with a .
(dot).
I can hear people going "Wow, no shit, Sherlock!" over this...
This convention traces its origin back to old UNIX where (by unintentional side
effect) files starting with .
became invisible by some programs.
People exploited this "bug" to make files hidden, and the UNIX community finally
adopted this as a "feature".[^1]
Remember: it's not a bug; it's a feature.
[^1]: See this post by Rob Pike about this whole shenanigans. Well, kinda, because Google killed Google+.
Though it isn't made to install dotfiles on systems, GNU stow
provides a nice
interface for installing dotfiles by creating symbolic links automatically.
But, I, having too much free time that I should've spent doing something far
more useful, created a "package manager" that installs binary dependencies as
well.
First, clone the repository into your favorite location. Don't forget to initialize submodules as some features depend on submodules.
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/RangHo/dotfiles ~/Dotfiles
Then cd
into the directory you chose.
cd ~/Dotfiles
Now you should initialize dotfile manager by running this script below.
Provide sudo
password if necessary.
./dotfile init
By now, the dotfile
script should have installed itself in ~/.local/bin
directory.
It is just for convenient access, so you may still use the script directly.
To install a dotfile package, run the following command:
dotfile install <package>
# ... where <package> is a directory that contains `pkginfo` file
Here are complete list of commands:
Command | What it does |
---|---|
dotfile install <package> |
Installs a package named <package> . It installs dependencies too. |
dotfile uninstall [--force] <package> |
Uninstalls a package named <package> . Note that this does not uninstall binary dependencies. |
dotfile update |
Updates the dotfiles repository. This feature is not tested rigorously, so use with caution. |
dotfile remove |
Remove all packages from the machine. It does not guarantee that all artifacts are removed also. |