gubasso's dotfiles

My personal dotfiles, managed with GNU Stow.

General Info

Config file headers with text ASCII art (e.g. Fish config):

toilet -f future -F border "Fish config"

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Overview

Managing your shell and application configurations (“dotfiles”) with Stow allows you to:

• Keep configurations versioned in Git.
• Easily deploy consistent setups across machines.
• Modularize per-application configs.

This guide covers both non-root (“user”) and root (“system”) setups.

Prerequisites

1. Git: for cloning this repo.

2. GNU Stow:

    # Debian/Ubuntu
    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install stow
   
    # Arch Linux
    sudo pacman -Syu stow
   
    # macOS (Homebrew)
    brew install stow

Installation

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/gubasso/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles

2. Stowing Packages (User-Level)

• Dry run to preview changes:

  stow -nvt ~ *

  • -n/--no : show what would happen (don't apply).
  • -v/--verbose : detailed output.
  • -t ~/--target=~ : where to create symlinks.
  • * : all packages (every directory).

• Apply symlinks:

  stow -vt ~ *

Usage Examples

• Link a single package (e.g., Alacritty):

  stow -vt ~ alacritty

  This creates symlinks from:

  ~/.dotfiles/alacritty/.config/alacritty/*.yml → ~/.config/alacritty/*.yml
  

• Link multiple packages:

  stow -vt ~ bash nvim git

System-Level (Root) Setup

When you need to manage system configs (e.g., services in /etc/systemd), perform Stow under root:

Stow to /:

sudo stow -vt / systemd_root bin_root shell_root

• -t / : target is the filesystem root.

• --adopt : (optional) move existing files into the repo before linking:

  sudo stow -vt / --adopt systemd_root

Real-World Examples

Based on your repository tree:

• Alacritty:

  cd ~/.dotfiles
  stow -vt ~ alacritty

• Custom Scripts (bin):

  stow -vt ~ bin

• User Shell Configs (bash, zsh):

  stow -vt ~ bash zsh

• Systemd Services (systemd_root):

  sudo stow -vt / systemd_root

• Root Shell Environments (shell_root):

  sudo stow -vt / shell_root

Troubleshooting

• Conflict Detected: If Stow reports existing files not owned by it, you can:

  stow -nvt ~ --adopt bash

  to move originals into ~/.dotfiles/bash/ then retry.

• Inspecting Symlinks:

  find ~/.config -maxdepth 2 -type l

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References