Using the GNU stow utility makes this super easy. It even has a --dotfiles flag so you can author your dotfiles as dot-zshrc and when the utility symlinks it, it will be .zshrc. Makes it nice so your source files are not hidden but the actual dotfiles are (as expected).

This will not handle cases other targets than $HOME. The automatic deletion seems also very risky. In my own script, I move all pre-existing targets to a separate directory, so I can check later.

I think I'm the only person insane enough to use a makefile for this.

https://github.com/matheusmoreira/.files/blob/master/GNUmake...

https://www.matheusmoreira.com/articles/managing-dotfiles-wi...

It even supports the XDG stuff as well as variables like GNUPGHOME.

I use stow, which has some nice advantages vs managing symlinks yourself

https://brandon.invergo.net/news/2012-05-26-using-gnu-stow-t...

I made it Python, added a simple json-config and mustache-templating. Very portable (where symlinks are), very flexible (also used it for termux for a bit) and very simple.

Sure, maybe. Though eventually one may find lots of edge cases. What about files in the root that get deleted? What about programs that put wanted state within config dirs? What about programs that ignore symlinked files? What about when you’re hacking on your dotfiles and break everything because the active config is the config being edited? What about when you need to vary based on system? What about…

I mean, yea, if it works for you, great! But all of the above are problems I did have. I grew a custom install script for years. Now I use Home Manager and the impermanence module.

Yeah, same: https://github.com/vbezhenar/dotfiles/blob/main/ln-all

No need for those complex software, just shell script is enough for me.

I'm sorry, but running `rm -rf ...` in a script against $HOME is a bit too reckless for me.

Maybe you haven't lost data from this yet, but this is where Chezmoi has nice guardrails and protects against, e.g., modifications or additions accidentally being made to $HOME instead of the dotfiles dir, which look like they would be silently blown out by your current process.

Just my 2¢ from someone who used to do it this way and lost data because of it.