14 ms·

Weird. I built my .rc files like 10 years ago, and only edit them about twice a year to add a plugin or modify a keybinding. Not a pain to maintain at all.

rublev 10y ago
How do you store them? Just backup into a dotfiles repo or what? I've been looking into dotfiles + gnu stow.
- falcolas 10y ago
  I do exactly this myself, and it works remarkably well. I had a few conflicts I had to work around between different packages, but the updated vim package directory structure has mostly solved that problem. EDIT: The biggest problem, for me, is that since they are all dotfiles, they are invisible to normal ls operations within the stow directory. It's a minor nit, but it can be quite annoying to run up against.
  - rublev 10y ago
    I've aliased ls to `alias ls='ls -GFhal'` to get around hidden dotfiles.
- juandazapata 10y ago
  I use a Github repo + gnu stow. I wrote a little post about it (http://juanda.me/managing-your-dotfiles-with-gnu-stow http://juanda.me/managing-your-dotfiles-with-gnu-stow). Notice that I've made my dotfiles repo private since then so you can't check it out, but the post still draws the general idea.
  - dylanz 10y ago
    +1 for this method! Good post. I originally learned about this through: http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to...
- bphogan 10y ago
  I use a Github repo, but I actually store it on Dropbox. I then symlink everything into place on a new computer. Any change I make to a dotfile then shows up on any other machines. http://github.com/napcs/dotfiles/ http://github.com/napcs/dotfiles/
- xutopia 10y ago
  Mine are on github. If you want to use this setup simply copy and paste the contents of your original files and use the `makesymlinks.sh` script to create the links. It takes me 30 seconds to setup a new computer with it. https://github.com/garyharan/dotfiles https://github.com/garyharan/dotfiles
  - wyclif 10y ago
    That's the post that inspired me to start cloning my config files from GitHub.
- Bluestrike2 10y ago
  I store them in a dotfiles repo that gets pushed to Github occasionally. They get symlinked to my home directory, and I use thoughtbot's rcm[0] tool for managing that. Then I just use a small script that I keep updated to handle installation and setup on a fresh computer. I'll need to take a look at gnu stow now. It seems like it'd be a slightly simpler alternative, and would keep my dotfiles folder a bit better organized. 0. https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm
- ansible 10y ago
  I use vcsh: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh I have separate repos for SSH, Bash, VIM, and other stuff (like .inputrc).
- aerique 10y ago
  I store my configs in a git repo on Seafile/Syncwerk (Dropbox alternative). This gives me a seamless experience on Unix, OSX and Windows where I just have to link to them from my home directory when on a new computer. Yes, it took an initial investment but now it just works everywhere and maintenance is low. (Some people say git repos in clouds sync are bad, but I have had zero problems with them over the years.)
  - joshuamorton 10y ago
    Its just bad because the .git folder means that any time you delete an old git repo or anything, you get a fevered email from dropbox reminding you that you just deleted 10000 files.
- cicloid 10y ago
  Stow is probably the simplest way to do it. The only weird thing is the directory structure I have with `.` prefixes in order to be linked as I want them inside my home. Besides that, I don't see how a better way to do it.
- mcintyre1994 10y ago
  I was searching for this earlier, I came across a HN post which someone from Atlassian write up really nicely: https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-store-dotfiles-git-bare-repo/ https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-sto... No extra tools (just git), no symlinks.
- nitemice 10y ago
  I have different needs in my dotfiles for different contexts, so I've created a system where each file is represented by a folder, which contains separate file snippets for each context. So in my vimrc folder, I've got a work file, a school file, a home file, and a base file (which applies everywhere). Then I have a bash script that stitches all the relevant chunks together into a cohesive file for a given location. It can even do sub-locations by adding underscores to the name. E.g. 'work_nas' will produce a file consisting of the base, work and work_nas files, concatenated together. This all sits in a private git repo, and I just manually copy the output files to wherever they belong whenever there's an update to them. I've been thinking for a while about writing a script to copy them into place, but GNU stow looks pretty interesting.
Touche 10y ago
Why is it weird? You created yours 10 years ago, great. For those of us who didn't it is a bit of a hassle.
- dmix 10y ago
  Pretty much everyone knows the price of admission to using tools like Vim and Emacs is the time investment in config and learning the quirks. What the OP is saying that this doesn't have to be a perpetual state. Once you invest effort early on getting it right you often don't need to touch it, beyond a few tweaks now and then. The maintenance burden definitely declines over time. Then all you need is a storage solution like git and GNU Stow or the various clones (plenty of good ones around or just use a basic dir). There are a few preconfigured configs on github, ala oh my ZSH but for Vim or Emacs. That's one solution. But otherwise if you're not a fan of this config heavy approach then it's not for you. Just like using Linux desktop vs Mac. I love the configurability of Archlinux and I've similarily reached a mature point in my configs where setting up a new machine is zero work and I rarely need to tweak it, nor does it ever 'break' (which is a side effect of constant change).
  - doktrin 10y ago
    > Pretty much everyone knows the price of admission to using tools like Vim and Emacs is the time investment in config and learning the quirks. To me, the real hurdle to vim (or emacs) isn't configuration : it's learning vim (or emacs). That muscle memory doesn't come from a .vimrc file, and it doesn't come overnight. Is that what you meant by "quirks"?
    - Barrin92 10y ago
      It's the same story with the muscle memory though. Build it up once, then the effort of learning new things is not very large. I don't think anybody doubts that there's a steep learning curve and some investment required to get set up, but you get a completely custom user experience out of it. And if you stick with it for years you're definitely getting your investment back.
    - 10y ago

rublev 10y ago

How do you store them? Just backup into a dotfiles repo or what? I've been looking into dotfiles + gnu stow.

falcolas 10y ago
I do exactly this myself, and it works remarkably well. I had a few conflicts I had to work around between different packages, but the updated vim package directory structure has mostly solved that problem. EDIT: The biggest problem, for me, is that since they are all dotfiles, they are invisible to normal ls operations within the stow directory. It's a minor nit, but it can be quite annoying to run up against.
- rublev 10y ago
  I've aliased ls to `alias ls='ls -GFhal'` to get around hidden dotfiles.
juandazapata 10y ago
I use a Github repo + gnu stow. I wrote a little post about it (http://juanda.me/managing-your-dotfiles-with-gnu-stow http://juanda.me/managing-your-dotfiles-with-gnu-stow). Notice that I've made my dotfiles repo private since then so you can't check it out, but the post still draws the general idea.
- dylanz 10y ago
  +1 for this method! Good post. I originally learned about this through: http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to-manage-your-dotfiles.html http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to...
bphogan 10y ago
I use a Github repo, but I actually store it on Dropbox. I then symlink everything into place on a new computer. Any change I make to a dotfile then shows up on any other machines. http://github.com/napcs/dotfiles/ http://github.com/napcs/dotfiles/
xutopia 10y ago
Mine are on github. If you want to use this setup simply copy and paste the contents of your original files and use the `makesymlinks.sh` script to create the links. It takes me 30 seconds to setup a new computer with it. https://github.com/garyharan/dotfiles https://github.com/garyharan/dotfiles
- wyclif 10y ago
  That's the post that inspired me to start cloning my config files from GitHub.
Bluestrike2 10y ago
I store them in a dotfiles repo that gets pushed to Github occasionally. They get symlinked to my home directory, and I use thoughtbot's rcm[0] tool for managing that. Then I just use a small script that I keep updated to handle installation and setup on a fresh computer. I'll need to take a look at gnu stow now. It seems like it'd be a slightly simpler alternative, and would keep my dotfiles folder a bit better organized. 0. https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm https://github.com/thoughtbot/rcm
ansible 10y ago
I use vcsh: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh I have separate repos for SSH, Bash, VIM, and other stuff (like .inputrc).
aerique 10y ago
I store my configs in a git repo on Seafile/Syncwerk (Dropbox alternative). This gives me a seamless experience on Unix, OSX and Windows where I just have to link to them from my home directory when on a new computer. Yes, it took an initial investment but now it just works everywhere and maintenance is low. (Some people say git repos in clouds sync are bad, but I have had zero problems with them over the years.)
- joshuamorton 10y ago
  Its just bad because the .git folder means that any time you delete an old git repo or anything, you get a fevered email from dropbox reminding you that you just deleted 10000 files.
cicloid 10y ago
Stow is probably the simplest way to do it. The only weird thing is the directory structure I have with `.` prefixes in order to be linked as I want them inside my home. Besides that, I don't see how a better way to do it.
mcintyre1994 10y ago
I was searching for this earlier, I came across a HN post which someone from Atlassian write up really nicely: https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-store-dotfiles-git-bare-repo/ https://developer.atlassian.com/blog/2016/02/best-way-to-sto... No extra tools (just git), no symlinks.
nitemice 10y ago
I have different needs in my dotfiles for different contexts, so I've created a system where each file is represented by a folder, which contains separate file snippets for each context. So in my vimrc folder, I've got a work file, a school file, a home file, and a base file (which applies everywhere). Then I have a bash script that stitches all the relevant chunks together into a cohesive file for a given location. It can even do sub-locations by adding underscores to the name. E.g. 'work_nas' will produce a file consisting of the base, work and work_nas files, concatenated together. This all sits in a private git repo, and I just manually copy the output files to wherever they belong whenever there's an update to them. I've been thinking for a while about writing a script to copy them into place, but GNU stow looks pretty interesting.

Touche 10y ago

Why is it weird? You created yours 10 years ago, great. For those of us who didn't it is a bit of a hassle.

dmix 10y ago
Pretty much everyone knows the price of admission to using tools like Vim and Emacs is the time investment in config and learning the quirks. What the OP is saying that this doesn't have to be a perpetual state. Once you invest effort early on getting it right you often don't need to touch it, beyond a few tweaks now and then. The maintenance burden definitely declines over time. Then all you need is a storage solution like git and GNU Stow or the various clones (plenty of good ones around or just use a basic dir). There are a few preconfigured configs on github, ala oh my ZSH but for Vim or Emacs. That's one solution. But otherwise if you're not a fan of this config heavy approach then it's not for you. Just like using Linux desktop vs Mac. I love the configurability of Archlinux and I've similarily reached a mature point in my configs where setting up a new machine is zero work and I rarely need to tweak it, nor does it ever 'break' (which is a side effect of constant change).
- doktrin 10y ago
  > Pretty much everyone knows the price of admission to using tools like Vim and Emacs is the time investment in config and learning the quirks. To me, the real hurdle to vim (or emacs) isn't configuration : it's learning vim (or emacs). That muscle memory doesn't come from a .vimrc file, and it doesn't come overnight. Is that what you meant by "quirks"?
  - Barrin92 10y ago
    It's the same story with the muscle memory though. Build it up once, then the effort of learning new things is not very large. I don't think anybody doubts that there's a steep learning curve and some investment required to get set up, but you get a completely custom user experience out of it. And if you stick with it for years you're definitely getting your investment back.
  - 10y ago