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.
Resilio Sync and symlinks. The symlinks aren’t great but I never remember to update git… Resilio is wonderful.
I use usb stick with Ventoy. I copy it into .config and add a line for aliassrc into .bashrc and I’m all set.
I copy everything in my home folder and paste it all in the new installation. Works well if I stick with the same desktop environment.
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I just don’t wipe out /home when I reinstall. Same /home partition, different distro on /
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’m not really a distro hopper but I just have my home directory as a git repository with a gitignore file. https://git.sr.ht/~cowingtonpost/dotfiles/tree/main/item/.gitignore
not distro-hopping, but i use nix, which can be used on anydistro.
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 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 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 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.
Same but with the addition of a Brewfile to manage installed apps/CLIs (supports both Mac and Linux)
I do the same plus a python script to automate the stowing. This plus konsave plus a script to install packages and it is a breeze to reinstall the OS
Via a script that “automatically” copies (and installs) everything I need to its respective folder.
I don’t stow or anything difficult anymore, it complicates things.
I just save everything in my gitlab account and then I manually create the links.
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
