dotfiles VS dotfiles

I really like this method as opposed to using a bare Git repository. For one, it's conceptually simpler in my mind; you don't have to understand Git internals to get this working. Secondly, this lets you pick and choose which config files you want to "install" on a machine.

I feel obligated to share my Bash script, dotfiles.sh[1], that accomplishes what Stow does, but with a few tweaks that I found particularly useful:

dotfiles.sh targets the user's home directory by default (i.e. stow -t $HOME).

dotfiles.sh never symlinks directories, only files (i.e. stow --no-folding). (This was the straw that broke the camel's back and made me roll my own script in the first place.)

dotfiles.sh makes backups of local config files and can restore them if you remove your symlinked version.

My script is quite old now, and I use it so seldomly I'm not convinced there aren't bugs. YMMV.

[1]: https://github.com/kevin-hanselman/dotfiles

Source: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/main/shrc#L381

I have a similar setup for my personal and project websites. Some similarities and differences:

* I use Linode VMs ($5/month).

* I too use Debian GNU/Linux.

* The initial configuration of the VM is coded as a shell script: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/main/linode.sh

* Project-specific or service-specific configuration is coded as individual Makefiles. This takes care of creatng An example: https://github.com/susam/susam.net/blob/main/Makefile

* The software is written in Common Lisp. In case of a personal website or blog, a static website is generated by a Common Lisp program. In case of an online service or web application, the service is written as a Common Lisp program that uses Hunchentoot to process HTTP requests and return HTTP responses.

* I use Nginx too. Nginx serves the static files as well as functions as a reverse proxy when there are backend services involved. Indeed TLS termination is an important benefit it offers. Other benefits include rate limiting requests, configuring an allowlist for HTTP headers to protect the backend service, etc.

I have something similar but a little more elaborate at my ~/bin to ensure that there isn't a severe loss of quality during the conversion: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/e434b7c/bin/xmp3

I follow a similar but handcrafted approach. I have a dotfiles repo with a setup script that automates the creation or deletion of all the symbolic links: https://github.com/susam/dotfiles/blob/master/setup

So what I do on any new system is just:

  git clone https://github.com/susam/dotfiles.git