How do you manage your dotfiles?

binarylu · 06-01-2017, 08:14 PM

save my dotfiles on github, an installation script as well. To restore, just one command like installing oh-my-zsh. The script supports to restore different dotfile depends on different OS and ENV.

It saved my a lot of time.

sbaynes · 06-02-2017, 02:45 AM

They are normal files backed up with the rest of the home file system by the sysadmin.

Wolfgang-B · 06-02-2017, 02:55 AM

I always let the dotfiles view and treat them like all the files.
M.f.G.
Wolfgang

pgloor · 06-02-2017, 03:15 AM

I dont care much. They are included in the backups.

frankhjung · 06-02-2017, 03:49 AM

Via - Automation.
If I have at all customised a dot file, then I use Ansible to manage it.

rinaldij · 06-02-2017, 07:20 AM

Same as everything else. Nightly rsync to different drive, weekly rsync to remote drive.

JZL240I-U · 06-02-2017, 10:11 AM

You made me look for it

.

On my system there is no need for special treatment: I do backups with backintime of my /home directory including any .files (backintime is a frontend for rsync) and openSUSE takes btrfs-snapshots every time the system is touched -- so, everything is cared for and I never even noticed. HTH.

onlyonemac · 06-03-2017, 07:23 AM

I image my disks. This backs up everything.

jmccue · 06-03-2017, 08:26 AM

RCS and rsync to a backup system at a friends house

Lucio Chiappetti · 06-05-2017, 03:16 AM

I don't do anything special for dot files. I backup (rsync) nightly all my working disk to a spare disk. When (every few years !) I update hardware and OS, I take care of copying them one by one to the new system (those which I have personally edited and I want to continue doing what I wanted ... for the others added by una tantum applications I just forget and let them be recreated).

Of course I tend to avoid creating real working files in the home directory directly, so it should contain only dot files and subdirectories.

hydrurga · 06-05-2017, 04:02 AM

Like others, I have no special treatment for dot files.

My home directory is backed up weekly on a file-by-file and partition basis to external media.

If I'm reinstalling from scratch then it tends to be a major version upgrade and so I reinstall everything from scratch (although with my diverse configurations, this may take several hours). The backups are only there for file(s)/partition rollback in case of problems.

Tux! · 06-06-2017, 04:22 AM

For personal dot-files, I keep my main box up-to-date with all changes I make anywhere and rsync from there

Main box has a daily backup of those dot files
One of the boxes it syncs to backups twice a day to a backup server with a 10yr history

Public dot-files, like for cpanprefs or elvis, are stored in github projects

wolsonjr · 06-06-2017, 06:57 AM

One thing I hadn't mentioned previously is -
I've written script files to modify/install various dot file customizations for the rare occurrence of a fresh install. These are maintained on several systems so they are always available as needed.
It also serves as a handy reference for the changes I've made.

felipeabrao · 09-04-2017, 06:48 AM

I don't do anything.

ondoho · 09-04-2017, 01:21 PM

My own question, and the bigger question i see behind most answers here, is:
What are dotfiles actually? (and p-lease not the literal definition)
why would i treat a particular subset of files differently?
isn't it much more important to define which files - once i know that for sure, the method of controling them should be much easier to settle on.