I am currently trying to keep track of my config files in a repo to be able to get the configa back together easily if/when I change distro, but I am not sure if that’s the best way or if I should be using some tool to help me since I some programs keep preferences in other directories other then $HOME (at least I think so). Can you guys share with me your must used/trusted simple process for this?
Thank you and specially thanks to everyone who is being helpful in this community for the past few weeks, I’ve learned much and got some very useful tips from the comments in my posts and in other people posts too.
I manage them by not. My configs are gone when I wipe my drive and I simply recreate them from memory. Things get forgotten, new things get changed. Holding on to the past too tightly will make you unable to leave it.
Personal git repo with my dotfiles and other aliases/bashrc items.
I use gnu stow (with --no-folding) and track my stow directory in a Git repo. This allows you to easily swap out distro specific differences, like the location of git_prompt.sh or aliases that map to different package managers. Also, you can switch between different window managers or desktop environments with a simple unstow and stow of .xinitrc files.
I manage them using git and stow.
Stow is very useful, but a bit unknown. Hard to explain in a Lemmy post, but basically it helps you manage symlinks between your git repo directory and your $HOME.
You can “install” and “uninstall” configs by managing the symlinks with stow.
+1 for stow, it’s so simple yet powerful.
I’m not as fancy as using git. I have a folder with all my config files, and it’s not a lot, in Nextcloud. When I’m on a new install, I sync my Nextcloud account then create symlinks to the files in the folder. So far no issues. I just keep track of where each simlink needs to go.
separate nvmes for the root-fs and for my users home folder.
configure /etc/fstab to point nvme to /home/username.
Done! I can wipe and hop as much as I like, and everything’s just there.
Tbh, i only hopped once, from Arch to Fedora and it was painless.
Home manager fan here. Every install I tweak something if I feel like it.
Ansible… Ansible… ansible…
Write a ansible playbook that contain any of the config…
Or Timeshift everything… and restore on new distro
It never even occurred to me that you can restore a timeshift on a different distro. I feel so stupid lol
You can lah… If not it’s useless. Haha… 😂
Lah?
Lah is like a added text, in end of cov. Like bro, man, etc… It’s mostly used in East and South east Asia.
Pardon, I type it unconsciously 😂
Oh no worries! I’ve just never heard it before lol
Resilio Sync and symlinks. The symlinks aren’t great but I never remember to update git… Resilio is wonderful.
i wasn’t able to. Just lut them up on github. but now i have nix so i can just set up flake and git clone. Got my configs.
I use usb stick with Ventoy. I copy it into .config and add a line for aliassrc into .bashrc and I’m all set.
not distro-hopping, but i use nix, which can be used on anydistro.
I have a git repository in
~/dotfiles, and symbolic link the ones I want as I need them. I’ve only just started tracking my dotfiles and I’m not super disciplined with it yet, so I still have slightly different setups on each system.
I manage my config files with RCM, this way: https://fedoramagazine.org/managing-dotfiles-rcm/
But I use it for share my dotfiles between my home and my work computer. For distro hopping only, I have my /home mounted in a secondary HD, so it’s never formatted.
For the config files in other paths, I keep a log of everything I changed in Dropbox and then I redo. I admit that this may not be the best solution, but the others works good.
sounds awesome! will try this approach
I used to have a git repo on Github for my dotfiles but I took it down when I realized that there are some config files I don’t want public like my newsboat links or API keys on my ~/.bashrc. Now I just sync it encrypted to some file storage but I may put it on my private git server instead where password-store lives.
I’m not a distrohopper, but GNU stow is delightfully simple. See my dotfiles as an example.