From 8a6198ecaf56e6d08ad42df937e016bb2a098e50 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jonathan Agmon <jojo@agmon.co.il>
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 2026 23:31:46 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] Add dotfiles.md

---
 linux/dotfiles.md | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+)
 create mode 100644 linux/dotfiles.md

diff --git a/linux/dotfiles.md b/linux/dotfiles.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71c913d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/linux/dotfiles.md
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+# Dotfiles Management
+## Create new bare repo
+### 1. Initialize a bare repo in your home directory
+git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles
+
+### 2. Create an alias (add this to your .bashrc / .zshrc)
+alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
+
+### 3. Hide untracked files (so 'config status' isn't noisy)
+config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no
+
+### 4. Start tracking files
+config add ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
+config add ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
+config commit -m "Add nvim and alacritty config"
+config push
+
+## Clone to a new machine
+### Clone repo
+git clone --bare https://github.com/you/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles
+
+### Set up the alias again, then checkout
+alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
+config checkout
+
+### If there are conflicts with existing files, back them up first
+mkdir -p ~/.config-backup && \
+config checkout 2>&1 | grep "\s\+\." | awk '{print $1}' | \
+xargs -I{} mv {} ~/.config-backup/{}
+```
+
+## Key Principles
+
+**What to track selectively** — don't blindly add all of `~/.config`. Be intentional:
+- ✅ App configs you've customized (nvim, tmux, git, zsh, etc.)
+- ❌ Secrets, tokens, credentials (use `.gitignore` or a secrets manager)
+- ❌ Cache dirs (`~/.config/*/Cache`, `~/.config/*/logs`)
+- ❌ Machine-specific state files
+
+**Use a `.gitignore`** at `$HOME` level:
+```
+.config/*/Cache
+.config/*/cache
+.config/**/sessions
+.config/chromium  # browser data