Using git to track your dot files

In GNU/Linux, user-specific application configuration is traditionally stored as plain text in dot files (so-called because their filename starts with a dot). Given their file format is plain text, it is common to track their status using a version control system such as Git.

One approach to do so is known as “bare repository and alias”, which entails doing the following,

Initialize an empty -or bare- repository.
Create an alias for this repo to avoid polluting the standard git
Prevent files we haven not added explicitly from showing
Register the new alias on profile initialisation files to engage our setup on each run automatically

To do so, we must execute the following,

$ git init --bare $HOME/git/dotfiles
$ alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/git/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
$ config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
$ echo "alias config='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/git/dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> $HOME/.bashrc

After this setup, git is ready to start tracking changes to any file inside $HOME. However, instead of the usual git commands, we use the ones we just setup

$ config setup  # instead of git setup

Then, we can add our files now

$ config add .gitconfig
$ config commit -m "Add gitconfig"
$ config add .bashrc
$ config commit -m "Add bashrc"
$ config add .makepkg.conf
$ config commit -m "Add makepkg"
$ config push

Of course, a remote must be set up before pushing the changes. We can do so as follows,

$ config remote add origin --your-remote-here--
$ config add README.md
$ config push --set-upstream origin master 

From now on, we can use this repo to easily track our dot files