Installation

Installation

There are two main ways to use my dotfiles: Either clone this entire repository and automatically sync your home directory with it, or manually copy over files you want to use. Both have pros and cons, but I recommend the latter for linux beginners.

Dependencies

When attempting to use my dotfiles, further configuration is needed with the dependencies for some applications. For example: When using zsh, a working installation of oh-my-zsh is needed to use my configuration. Manual editing of the corresponding dotfile is needed then, as zsh's dotfile needs to point to the directory where oh-my-zsh is installed.

Use whole repository

When you want to copy over my entire repository, thus overriding ALL your own dotfiles with mine, here are the steps you need to go through:

1. Copy this repository as a bare repository in the following directory: ~/.local/share/dabs-repos/dotfiles-linux
2. Set up an alias config to interact with this bare repository in a git-like way from any directory
3. Check out the repository to the current commit, together with setting up $HOME as the working directory for the repository

Note that this is not recommended for linux beginners, as it overrides a lot of files from your own home directory. Do not execute the following commands if you don't understand what everyone of them does and what that means to your files. With my configuration, some applications may be not accessible for you and you might need to delete all overwritten files. Do always have a backup of your current dotfiles before installing mine!

alias config="/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.local/share/dabs-repos/dotfiles-linux/ --work-tree=$HOME"
config clone --bare git@github.com:DerDomee/dotfiles-linux.git ~/.local/share/dabs-repos/dotfiles-linux
config reset --hard

Cherry-Pick single dotfiles

When you only want to use my dotfiles for a single application, there are multiple ways to accomplish your goal:

1. Clone this repository in a standard repository directory, then manually copy your desired file to the right location
2. Download only one file from this repository and place it directly in your users home directory

Customize repository location

When using the whole repository to install my dotfiles, you may run into the issue that I personally store my repository in ~/.local/share/dabs-repos/dotfiles-linux. If you do not want to store this repository in this specific location, you need to change the config alias both in the installation script and in the config file for zsh to your desire.