How do you manage your dotfiles?

jeremy · 05-31-2017, 09:07 AM

The official LQ poll series continues. This time we want to know: How do you manage your dotfiles?

NOTE: If you don't currently, a few URLs you may want to check out before answering:

https://dotfiles.github.io/
https://developer.atlassian.com/blog...git-bare-repo/
http://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012...-dotfiles.html

--jeremy

suicidaleggroll · 05-31-2017, 09:26 AM

They're in the same incremental backup system as everything else on the machines.

BW-userx · 05-31-2017, 09:36 AM

I didn't even know I was suppose to .. <--- them little dots are now going to manifest into a psychoses -- oh dear

Timothy Miller · 05-31-2017, 09:49 AM

Really, I don't. I don't change my defaults enough to bother with backing them up. The default from a fresh profile works for me.

sundialsvcs · 05-31-2017, 10:21 AM

Everything is continuously being backed-up, including hidden files.

When I update a Linux kernel, I always make a non-hidden, uniquely-named copy of the hidden kernel-configuration file in a completely separate location. (In some cases, I copy it to the same file-name, then "commit" the changed version to "git" version-control.) This allows me to quickly revert to any previous configuration, and to diff any pair of them in order to discover precisely what is different.

jailbait · 05-31-2017, 10:28 AM

I don't make any distinction between dot files and other types of files. I just copy them, delete them, back them up, and restore them the same as any other file.

--------------------
Steve Stites

kilgoretrout · 05-31-2017, 10:37 AM

Quote:

I don't make any distinction between dot files and other types of files. I just copy them, delete them, back them up, and restore them the same as any other file.

Totally, agree. Can't see any reason to treat them differently.

jford_oldman · 05-31-2017, 10:47 AM

I use rsbackup. Like several others have posted, the dot files are backed up routinely.

Habitual · 05-31-2017, 11:00 AM

They always seem to manage just fine.

DavidMcCann · 05-31-2017, 12:03 PM

My daily backups ignore dotfiles, but I do have a complete backup kept separately. Since they are seldom altered, that's adequate. I can't ignore them: losing .fonts, .XCompose, .wine, or all my keyboard short-cuts would be a nightmare.

rknichols · 05-31-2017, 12:46 PM

I back them up daily along with everything else. The trash, cache, and thumbnail directories get excluded, and things like .bash_history and browser history get backed up separately with a different retention policy. As for the others, let's just say that if I wanted to know what my .bashrc file looked like in February, 2004, I know where to find it.

wolsonjr · 05-31-2017, 03:53 PM

Wasn't exactly sure what you are querying. They get dealt with same as any other files depending on what they are and what I'm doing.
I guess the real question should be 'are you aware of dot files and which ones matter to you for purposes such as backup'.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Jeremy suspects there are people out there who aren't aware of them and he wants to subtly bring them to peoples attention.

scasey · 05-31-2017, 05:28 PM

They get backed up like any other file using rsnapshot.

fido_dogstoyevsky · 05-31-2017, 06:37 PM

Same as all my other files - on my on AND off site sneakernet.

jserink · 05-31-2017, 07:09 PM

I rsync my home directory, as root and my /etc directory to an external USB3 drive once a week.
The first time takes about 2 hours, after that it's about a 15 minute operation.

Formally I would boot off a USB drive and dd every byte to a backup file on a usb3 external disk but that took 2.5 hours so I've gone to the rsync method.

I had a HDD go down on me just b4 Christmas and I had a copy of /home and /etc and was able to rebuild in less than a day (if you exclude the fighting I had to do with grub2).

Cheers,
John