Dotfile management: GNU Stow

GNU Stow

GNU stow is symlink manager that links data (e.g., .vimrc, .zshrc, or any file for that matter) in the system into a single directory.

Installation

brew install stow

Using stow

1. Create a directory for dotfiles

mkdir dotfiles cd dotfiles

2. Create directories for storing .rc files.

mkdir vim

3. Move .rc files into dotfiles directory

mv .vimrc <path to dotfiles>/vim/

4. Symlink files

stow -v -R -t $HOME <path to dotfiles>/vim

• -v flag indicates verbose
• -R is recursive
• -t $HOME is target directory where we the symlinked file to appear
• <path to dotfiles>/vim is where the actual file is located

References

1. GNU Stow Manual
2. writingco.de/blog/how-i-manage-my-dotfiles-using-gnu-stow/