daily-email: add 2023-08-14

Why keep a dotfiles repository

src/content/daily-email/2023-08-14.md

@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+---
+title: >
+  Why keep a dotfiles repository
+pubDate: 2023-08-14
+permalink: >
+  archive/2023/08/14/why-keep-a-dotfiles-repository
+tags:
+  - dotfiles
+---
+
+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.
+
+But why do this?
+
+It makes it easy to share the same configuration across multiple computers, such as personal and work or different setups for clients.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+I can experiment with settings and programs and then revert them again if I want to.
+
+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.
+
+I can review it in the future in case I need it again or want to re-evaluate it.
+
+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.