Dotfiles with Chezmoi

Dotfiles Management #

I’m not a fan of complex workflows for personal use, simpler is better. Over many years I’ve seen countless posts and repositories about dotfiles, and often they felt highly customized. Frequently, people provide their own bash scripts to install and manage dotfiles.

That’s not my approach. After many years in software engineering, I appreciate the power of open source and well-designed, well-tested solutions. Even a small library should be thoughtfully designed and carefully tested — so why reinvent the wheel?

I don’t remember how I found chezmoi¹, but it was simple and straightforward. It has good documentation, is actively maintained, and offers many features.

Although I felt comfortable with chezmoi¹, I forgot about it several times. Each time I returned, I was pleasantly surprised at how useful and well-maintained it still was.

So I use it, and I recommend it to others — everyone is happy. Since it has proven itself many times, I can confidently recommend it.

Quick walkthrough #

Chezmoi¹ has many features, and most importantly, excellent documentation. I won’t repeat that documentation here. Instead, here’s a quick overview of how I suggest getting started.

As an example, we’ll install my dotfiles from my dotfiles repo and assume you’re using macOS.

1. Install through Homebrew: brew install chezmoi
2. Initialize chezmoi with my repo: chezmoi init [email protected]:aohorodnyk/dotfiles.git
3. Apply dotfiles to your home directory: chezmoi apply, and write your password if prompted.

That’s it — you’ll have my dotfiles in your home directory.

To open the cloned repo, run chezmoi cd — it will open the repo in your terminal.

Read docs, it’s really powerful!

Good luck with your dotfiles management! #

This note isn’t just about chezmoi — it’s about the value of exploring and learning new technologies, and of continual self-improvement. Even after 10, 20, or 30 years of experience, you can still learn and grow.

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions or need assistance.