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Managing Dotfiles with GNU Stow

Overview​

GNU Stow is a symlink manager that helps you organize and manage configuration files (dotfiles) from a central repository. It keeps your home directory clean and makes it easy to version-control your setup.

Folder Structure​

Your dotfiles repository should mirror your home directory using a home subfolder:

~/dotfiles/
└── home/
    ├── .bashrc
    ├── .vimrc
    └── .config/
        └── nvim/
            └── init.vim

  • The home/ directory mirrors your actual home (~) layout.

  • Place files exactly as they appear in ~.

    • For example:

      • .bashrc → home/.bashrc
      • .config/nvim/init.vim → home/.config/nvim/init.vim

Linking Dotfiles with Stow​

From inside your dotfiles directory, run:

cd ~/dotfiles
stow -v --adopt home/

This will:

  • Create symlinks from ~/dotfiles/home/ to your real home directory (~).
  • Move any existing dotfiles into ~/dotfiles/home/ before linking (using the --adopt flag).

You can verify that the symlinks were created correctly with:

ls -la ~

Updating or Adding New Dotfiles​

Whenever you add or modify files in your dotfiles repository, restow to update the links:

stow -v --adopt --restow home/

This ensures all symlinks remain up to date and any new configurations are linked properly.