homefiles_setup

Store files from your home directory in Git for backup and tracking.

This is a good way to tracking changes to your shell startup files.

Based on the article The best way to store your dotfiles: A bare Git repository.

Usage

Setup

1. Clone this repository.

2. Create an empty GitHub repository to store your homefiles.

3. Run the homefiles_setup script

   $ homefiles_setup https://github.com/jcouball/homefiles

This will create a bare repository in ~/.homefiles, add the usual Bash and Z Shell startup scripts, and push them to your new repository.

Restart your shell to enable the homefiles command.

Managing Home Files

Use the homefiles command to manage your home files. Since homefiles is an alias for git, you can use all the same git commands you are already familiar with.

Run homefiles from your home directory:

• See what files have been changed:

  homefiles status

• See the changes are:

  homefiles status

• Add a new file to Git:

  homefiles add .gemrc
  homefiles commit -m 'Add my gem configuration'
  homefiles push

About Shell Startup Files

Bash

Bash startup files showing the order (A, B, etc.) which files are sourced depending on how the shell was run.

File	Interactive Login	Interactive non-login	Script
STARTUP FILES
/etc/profile	A	--	--
/etc/bashrc	--	A	--
~/.bashrc	--	B	--
~/.bash_profile	B1	--	--
~/.bash_login	B2	--	--
~/.profile	B3	--	--
BASH_ENV	--	--	A
SHUTDOWN FILES
~/.bash_logout	C	--	--

List all possible Bash dotfiles:

ll /etc/profile /etc/bashrc ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile ~/.bash_login ~/.profile ~/.bash_logout

On my system:

• /etc/profile sources /etc/bashrc if not running bash
• /etc/bashrc sources /etc/bashrc_$TERM_PROGRAM — there isn’t one for iTerm.app
• ~/.bashrc sources /etc/bashrc
• ~/.bash_profile sources ~/.bashrc

Z Shell

Z Shell startup files showing the order (A, B, etc.) which files are sourced depending on how the shell was run.

File	Interactive Login	Interactive non-login	Script
STARTUP FILES
/etc/zshenv	A	A	A
~/.zshenv	B	B	B
/etc/zprofile	C	--	--
~/.zprofile	D	--	--
/etc/zshrc	E	C	--
~/.zshrc	F	D	--
/etc/zlogin	G	--
~/.zlogin	H	--
		--
SHUTDOWN FILES
~/.zlogout	I	--	--
/etc/zlogout	J	--	--

List all possible Z Shell dotfiles:

ll /etc/zshenv ~/.zshenv /etc/zprofile ~/.zprofile /etc/zshrc ~/.zshrc /etc/zlogin ~/.zlogin ~/.zlogout /etc/zlogout

On my system:

• /etc/zshrc sources /etc/zshrc_$TERM_PROGRAM — there isn’t one for iTerm.app
• ~/.zshrc sources $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh