dotfiles

This is my dotfiles repository. Visitors to this repository seem to be primarily interested in my GNU/Emacs setup, which is handled in a somewhat "literate" fashion, by virtual of being written in Markdown format:

• .emacs.d/init.md
  • This is a markdown file which contains most of my emacs setup.
• .emacs.d/init.el
  • This file is read at startup-time by Emacs, and executes the content of the markdown file.
  • It will also load some org-mode files, if they exist.

The bash setup is pretty minimal, the startup files just source every file located beneath ~/.bash/ (and ~/.bash.local if it exists). This allows me to group setup in a small number of files which is easier to organize.

Using The Repository

This repository was created as a "bare" repository, so that it can track files in my home directory. Because of this the checkout process is a little different than usual.

Here is my recipe for deployment on a new host:

Step one: checkout the repository:

If you wish to get read-only access, and you're never going to push updates:

 git clone --bare git://github.com/skx/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles.git

If you have permission you can pull the repository, and gain access to push it:

 git clone --bare [email protected]:skx/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles.git

Step two: setup a sane alias

 alias .DOTFILES="git --git-dir=$HOME/dotfiles.git --work-tree=$HOME/"

Step three: See which files will be over-written in your current home directory:

 .DOTFILES status -s -uno

Step four: If no files will be corrupted, or you're happy to replace them, do the necessary:

 .DOTFILES checkout -b  original_files -f
 .DOTFILES commit -a  -m 'original files'
 .DOTFILES checkout master

Now you're done.

It is perhaps more sane to merely use the github browser to cherry-pick the files and functions you want, but each to their own.

Removing README.md

Once you've clone the repository to your local system you'll find that you have a README.md file in your home-directory, which some might find annoying. Ideally I'd not have this in the repository but without the instructions the repository would be hard to find/understand for github users.

You can remove the file like so:

$ .DOTFILES update-index --assume-unchanged README.md
$ rm README.md

If you're curious you can see other files that are being ignored:

$ .DOTFILES ls-files -v | grep ^h

If you ever want to restore the file:

$ .DOTFILES update-index --no-assume-unchanged README.md