Do you use dotfiles? If so, how?

Question

I'm working on something that might benefit more people than just me. I have a few questions:

• How do you structure your dotfiles?
• What kinds of settings do you keep in them?
• How do you learn about settings or options you can add to them?
• What applications do you include?
• How do you back them up?
• Why do you use them?
• Any interesting use cases?

Links to public repositories are welcomed! :)

Robert Hopman · Accepted Answer

If I have to do something more than a few times, I'll put it in. I like fzf.

Jon Edgeworth · Answer

Just started using dotfiles myself. I had been doing something similar, but different. Right now I only use them for TMUX and Neovim, but plan to restructure how I work between local machine and servers so I can use dotfiles more effectively. 

One place to start is from many of the content creators that promote Neovim. A github repo I've looked at for examples to set mine up belongs to ThePrimeagen. Should be able to find it with that info.

Przemysław Chojecki · Answer

Thanks for response, but it's not that kind of files. :-)

https://dotfiles.github.io/

Reinier Hernández · Answer

I'm so sorry. I don't know why I read LottieFiles 🤣🤣🤣.

Answering your real question:
I have dot files for my neovim configuration, polybar, bspwm and a lot of other programs. That help me to keep the same configuration between computers and restore my configuration when I reinstall.

I use stow to install those files. https://www.gnu.org/software/stow/manual/stow.html

Reinier Hernández · Answer

You can search for some videos about stow but it is simple, just create a folder path with your real configuration inside a folder. 

I have a repository called .dotfiles in home (~) and I just have to run: `stow -v tmux` and this will create a symlink to the files/folder inside the folder called tmux.

Sadly I can't share my personal configuration since I have private keys there. But there are a few youtubers with their dotfiles on github that you can check

Philipp Keller · Answer

Do you mean dotfiles for 3rd party applications? (vim, bash, tmux, …) or for my own applications (to store passwords, etc.)?

Przemysław Chojecki · Answer

Both, I want to know how everyone use them or if they have special use cases

Reinier Hernández · Answer

I use Lottiefiles for states (loading, 404 error, 500 errors, etc)

I ise react and there is a player to render the lotties, I just have to set dimensions and a lottie url. I don't know what is your stack and how you want to use it

Nik Spyratos · Answer

I've tried to find a "must have" use case for dot files.  Beyond a few personalised handy aliases, I'm really not convinced they're necessary for the average developer.

They'll reduce setup time if you move between machines often sure, but it won't stop you from the endless tweaking, configuration and debugging that developers are prone to do :)

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Do you use dotfiles? If so, how?

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