• set temporary config alias in current shell.

  • on windows:

  function config {& git --git-dir=$HOME\.cfg\ --work-tree=$HOME $args}

  • on linux:

  alias config='git --git-dir=$HOME/.cfg/ --work-tree=$HOME'

• clone dotfiles into a bare repositofy in ~/.cfg:

git clone --bare [email protected]:fneu/dotfiles.git $HOME/.cfg

• checkout the actual content from the bare repository to $HOME:

config checkout

This might fail if some files are already present. Rename or delete them.

• Set the flag showUntrackedFiles to no locally, to not have everything in $HOME show up on running config status.

config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

• done! From now on, the config (git) command can be used to manage the dotfiles

I found this approach in this blogpost