Dotfiles Terminal Tools

Dotfiles are the per user configuration files in a home directory whose names begin with a period, such as .bashrc, .vimrc and .gitconfig. The leading dot is what keeps them out of a default directory listing.

 

Managing them means holding one copy in a Git repository and applying it to every machine, with templates for the parts that differ per host and a way to keep secrets out of the repository. Dotfile managers handle the symlinks, the bootstrap on a fresh machine, and the drift that shows up once several machines are in use.

 

Below is a list of terminal tools that manage dotfiles.