Awesome Dotfiles

A curated list of dotfiles resources. Inspired by the awesome list thing. Note that some articles or tools may look old or old-fashioned, but this usually means they're battle-tested and mature (like dotfiles themselves). Feel free to propose new articles, projects or tools!

Articles

Introductions

Tutorials

Shell startup

Using specific tools

Using GNU Stow to manage your dotfiles
Managing Dotfile Symlinks with GNU Stow
Dotfiles and dev tools provisioned by Ansible

Find dotfiles repos

There are many great dotfiles repos out there, each containing their own inspiration and gems. One way to go through them is to search GitHub for "dotfiles".

Also see:

Google for "dotfiles"
Archlinux collection
Tip: search for a filename on GitHub, e.g. path:**/.gitconfig.

Example dotfiles repos

A collection of the most popular, well-maintained, and collaborative dotfiles repositories & frameworks. Some projects contain just the dotfiles. Others go further by allowing you to easily add your own custom dotfiles, and some include scripts to manage dotfiles and plugins.

Bash

Title	Description	Focus
Bash it	Community bash framework.	Autocompletion, themes, aliases, custom functions. Well-structured framework
Mathias’s dotfiles	Sensible hacker defaults for macOS	🔧 .files, including ~/.macos — sensible hacker defaults for macOS
webpro's dotfiles	macOS dotfiles	Bash, Homebrew, Brew Cask, Git, Node.js, Hammerspoon.
rootbeersoup's dotfiles	Effortless Bash, Vim and macOS configuration	A `curl \| sh` installer and a Makefile offer portable and effortless setup for either permanent or temporary configuration.

Zsh

Title	Description	Focus
Nick Khan's dotfiles	Personal dotfiles for configuring macOS environment with Zsh and Homebrew. No fluff, only the stuff I actually use.	Zsh, Git (w/ aliases), Visual Studio Code, Ghostty, shell aliases, sensible macOS defaults, custom CLI script, etc.
thoughtbot dotfiles	Set of vim, zsh, git, and tmux configuration files	Zsh, vim, tmux, git, homebrew. Uses rcm.
oh-my-zsh	Community-driven framework for managing your zsh configuration.	Oh My Zsh is an open source, community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration
Prezto	The configuration framework for Zsh.	Enriches the command line interface environment with sane defaults, aliases, functions, auto completion, and prompt themes.
Dries's dotfiles	Simplified approach to dotfiles for macOS	Zsh, Oh My Zsh, macOS, Homebrew, Mackup
holman does dotfiles	Topic-oriented, fork-friendly dotfiles	Zsh, Git, Vim, Homebrew, macOS, modular topic directories and bootstrap scripts.
Kevin's dotfiles	macOS dotfiles for Python developers	Zsh, Python, Neovim, VS Code, Homebrew, macOS defaults and security settings.
sobolevn's dotfiles	Dotfiles for the developer happiness	macOS, zsh, brew, vscode, codespaces, python, node, elixir
yutkat's dotfiles	Well-maintained dotfiles that use CI to test and measure startup speeds.	Zsh, Neovim, Wezterm, swaywm working on Arch/Ubuntu/Fedora Linux.
Luke's voidrice	My dotfiles (deployed by LARBS)	Zsh, vim/nvim, zsf
2KAbhishek's dots2k	Passionately crafted, extensible dotfiles with multi platform support	CLI tools at core, with extensions for different platforms (windows/mac/android), editors and window managers
Zim	Modular, customizable, and blazing fast Zsh framework	Zim is a Zsh configuration framework that bundles a plugin manager, useful modules, and a wide variety of themes, without compromising on speed.

Fish

Title	Description	Focus
oh-my-fish	The Fish Shell Framework	Core infrastructure to allow you to install packages to extend/modify your shell
Paul's dotfiles	paul's fish, bash, git, etc config files. good stuff.	Fish, macOS, Homebrew, Custom Shell functions

Ansible

Title	Description	Focus
.dots	New and upgraded dotfiles, now with Ansible!	Completely automated desktop setup, configuration and maintenance using Ansible
Mac Dev Playbook	Mac setup and configuration via Ansible	Full macOS dev machine setup including Homebrew, dotfiles, apps, and OS config
sloria's dotfiles	sloria's dotfiles as Ansible roles	Sets up a full local development environment with a single command

Tools

Ansible - Radically simple configuration-management, application deployment, task-execution, and multinode orchestration engine.
chezmoi - Manage your dotfiles securely across multiple machines.
dotbot - Tool that bootstraps your dotfiles.
dotdrop - Save your dotfiles once, deploy them everywhere.
dotly - Modular Zsh-based dotfiles framework for macOS, Linux, and WSL.
DotState - Git-backed dotfile manager with profiles, automatic backups, and an interactive terminal interface.
dotter - A dotfile manager and templater written in Rust.
dots - Opinionated dotfiles generator that allows quick configuration of different window managers in multiple OSs!
Fisher - A package manager for Fish.
fresh - Keep your dotfiles fresh. Fresh is a tool to source shell configuration (aliases, functions, etc) from others into your own configuration files.
GNU Stow - Symlink farm manager which takes distinct packages of software and/or data located in separate directories on the filesystem, and makes them appear to be installed in the same place.
home-manager - Manage a user environment using Nix.
homeshick - Git dotfile synchronizer written in Bash.
homesick - Clone and manage Git-based dotfiles repositories with symlinks.
lnk - Git-native dotfiles management without extra config.
mackup - Keep your application settings in sync (macOS/Linux).
OpenBoot - Mac dev environment manager that captures and restores Homebrew packages, dotfiles, shell configuration, and macOS preferences via interactive TUI.
rcm - rc file (dotfile) management.
rotz - Fully cross-platform dotfile manager and dev environment bootstrapper written in Rust.
themer - Manage and generate themes across your development tools from within your dotfiles.
toml-bombadil - Templatize and manage your dotfiles.
Tuckr - Cross-platform, Stow-style dotfile manager with groups, hooks, and deployment validation.
xdg-ninja - A shell script which checks your $HOME for unwanted files and directories.
yadm - Tool for managing a collection of files across multiple computers, using a shared Git repository and some additional features.
yolk - Dotfile manager with inline templating via comments, so files stay valid even un-deployed.

macOS

dockutil - Command line tool for managing dock items.
mas - Mac App Store command line interface.

Miscellaneous

dotfiles.github.io - Your unofficial guide to dotfiles on GitHub.
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard - Directory structure and directory contents in Linux distributions.
XDG Base Directory Specification - Summary
A lesson in shortcuts - How the idea of "hidden" or "dot" files was born, by Rob Pike (originally posted on Google+).

Related Lists

Awesome Dev Env - Curated list of awesome tools, resources and workflow tips making an awesome development environment.
Awesome Fish - Curated list of packages, prompts, and resources for the fish shell.
Awesome Shell - Curated list of awesome command-line frameworks, toolkits, guides and gizmos.
Awesome Sysadmin - A curated list of amazingly awesome open source sysadmin resources.
Awesome Zsh Plugins - List of Zsh plugins suitable for use with oh-my-zsh, antigen & Prezto.
Terminals Are Sexy - A curated list of Terminal frameworks, plugins & resources for CLI lovers.

Archive/abandoned projects

License

To the extent possible under law, Lars Kappert has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.

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