28 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
28 lines
1.3 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: >
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Why keep a dotfiles repository
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pubDate: 2023-08-14
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permalink: >-
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archive/2023/08/14/why-keep-a-dotfiles-repository
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tags:
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- dotfiles
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---
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A few days ago, I said it's been 8 years since I started my dotfiles repository and kept my configuration files in version control.
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But why do this?
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It makes it easy to share the same configuration across multiple computers, such as personal and work or different setups for clients.
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It's also a backup of my configuration. If I need to reinstall my system or start fresh, I don't need to configure everything again manually.
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If you work on a team, you can share your configuration with colleagues, find things that work well for the team, and anything that could cause issues.
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I can experiment with settings and programs and then revert them again if I want to.
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If I add or remove a program or change a setting, I have the Git commit log to refer to, and I can document why I made that change and what problem it solves in the message body.
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I can review it in the future in case I need it again or want to re-evaluate it.
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Like on other projects, capturing the why is important. The what can be seen in the diff and speaks for itself, but it doesn't explain why I made the change and won't help if I look at that commit in the future.
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