Distro hoppers, how do you manage your config files?

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.

adonis,
@adonis@kbin.social avatar

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.

lfromanini,

I manage my config files with RCM, this way: 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.

Retainer8510,

sounds awesome! will try this approach

hitagi,

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.

Skriptmonkey,

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.

awwsom,
@awwsom@beehaw.org avatar

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.

mundane,

I keep my files in a repo on gitlab and use yadm to sync them.

Yadm is a wrapper around git, so you have all the standard git commands plus some extra to work with templating and encryption etc.

Nuuskis9,

I use usb stick with Ventoy. I copy it into .config and add a line for aliassrc into .bashrc and I’m all set.

Penguincoder,

Personal git repo with my dotfiles and other aliases/bashrc items.

vredez,

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.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • uselessserver093
  • Food
  • [email protected]
  • aaaaaaacccccccce
  • test
  • CafeMeta
  • testmag
  • MUD
  • RhythmGameZone
  • RSS
  • dabs
  • oklahoma
  • Socialism
  • KbinCafe
  • TheResearchGuardian
  • Ask_kbincafe
  • SuperSentai
  • feritale
  • KamenRider
  • All magazines
    •