I'm declaring dotfile bankruptcy. How to start from scratch effectively?

This is the way I do it: https://drewdevault.com/2019/12/30/dotfiles.html

Doesn't require anything beyond Git, which is really nice.

One thing I started doing differently is using a .ksajrc file. I then simply add that to the last line of .bashrc. The reason is that all too often the .bashrc that comes "stock" with a major OS update/upgrade requires changes that get clobbered if you overwrite the default .bashrc all the time. This means I don't miss out on the OS changes, but I also have all my creature comforts.

For example, instead of specifying my full path in .ksajrc, I simply prepend my ~/bin if it is not already included in the pre-.ksajrc $PATH variable. Doing that means I don't suddenly lose new dist-added /opt directories in the path, as one example of many possible.

I also keep a list of what packages I need installed so I can just run that script after installation of the new OS. I do this mainly because I install a lot of stuff that doesn't normally get included in a stock setup. (examples include sbcl, gaze, htop, etc)

I haven't reflected that in my github dotfiles repository yet, but I should get on top of that.

Pretty much as the title states. I'm a long-time dsktop Linux/Debian only user using zsh/emacs as the base for stuff but obviously use the usual suspects as well.

Please suggest pro-tips / useful github repos / etc for setting up a really effective development / semi-scientific computing setup. Thank you. :-)

Keep on top of committing changes.

I'm terrible for coming back to my dotfile repo, finding I have some staged changes, some not, and some more untracked files, and then it's sometimes a struggle to work out if they're important changes that I'm using or not. Keep on top of it, and try to make your commit messages useful notes you yourself about why you have it that way, so you don't come to change it later and break one workflow for the sake of another.

At this point only you know why it didn't work out. We don't yet know what approach you took and what potential mistakes were made. So only you can answer what to do and not to do when starting over.

To help you get started, why are you declaring dotfile bankruptcy?

I recommend using yadm. It's basically just git under the hood, but it has some nice features that allow you to e.g. encrypt sensitive files, use different files depending on the OS/host, etc.

Hmm. I only care about what's in:

  .bashrc/bash_profile (1 alias, 1 path addition, git prompt)
  .gitconfig
  .exrc (:syntax off)
  .ssh/config & keys

Try to stick to defaults.

All my dotfiles are in a git repo.

Whenever I'm doing a fresh install, I simply download all my most-used packages and rsync the dot files.

I'm planning on investing some time and setting up Ansible so I only have to install python and it does the rest for me.

HTH

stow is pretty great http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-to...