dotfiles VS rcm

I've been looking for a cross-platform dotfile management tool and I had some hope for this but it seems a little too complex, and I don't like that I would end up with lots of yaml/toml/json files. I use Mac, Windows, and Linux and I want to have a single configuration for all. I've been using https://github.com/rhysd/dotfiles and it is the only thing that really works well for me.

I've used my custom bash script for managing dotfiles for ages and also have tried all other tools, but just couldn't get it right because I work on multiple OS. Then I found https://github.com/rhysd/dotfiles. It is the only tool I know of that can support multiple OS (Linux, mac, windows). I have to work with multiple OS and having a single dotfiles repo has been great, especially its ability to set different config on different OS, well as a unified Unix-like config setting.

Are your per-machine branches mostly distinct, or do they share a lot?

I use https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm and I find my dotfiles share _quite a bit_ in some respects (e.g. neovim config) but are drastically different in others (SSH config as one example) -- keeping things synced _across_ branches sounds very difficult. rcm handles this well, without branches, IMO.

I use https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm, which works smoothly and includes support for host-specific files

I use thoughtbot/rcm to handle my github dotfiles. Super short version after installing, mkdir ~/.dotfiles Then go through your home directory (ie. ~/ ) and mkrc .bashrc and then do the same for any other files you plan on tweaking or have custom settings for. Most of these with be in ~/.config/ but some will be in ~/ . (ie. mkrc ~/.bashrc for your bash settings and aliases)

Prior to catching the Nix brainworms and switching to home-manager, I mostly used thoughtbot/rcm.

Personally I like (and use) rcm. Everything is still in a git repository, but has more features that work well for sharing across multiple machines.

Check out https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm

I use rcm. It assumes you keep a separate (potentially version-controlled) folder at ~/.dotfiles or similar, and it provides a suite of tools for managing the symlinks.

https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm

currently I am managing my dotfiles with rcm (ran by ansible). This approach served me well over the years but recently I stumpled over chezmoi.

Setup a Github/Gitlab account and find a dotfile manager you like (I'm using RCM - it can do more than I actually use it for).