GitHub ❤ ~/

Why would I want my dotfiles on GitHub?

• Backup, restore, and sync the prefs and settings for your toolbox. Your dotfiles might be the most important files on your machine.
• Learn from the community. Discover new tools for your toolbox and new tricks for the ones you already use.
• Share what you've learned with the rest of us.

Get started with a bootstrap

If you're just starting out, before you go symlinking everything in ~/*, you may want to check out a few bootstrap projects that take the heavy lifting out of the process. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Zach Holman's dotfiles features topical organization, auto sourcing Zsh files, easy Zsh completion extensions, and a local bin folder for executables. The included Rakefile will symlink anything ending in .symlink to your ~ folder.
• Mathias Bynens' dotfiles includes a bootstrap script that rsyncs your repo to your home folder. Mathias' OS X defaults script is legendary.
• Yan Pritzker's dotfiles bundles an opinionated set of Vim plugins and Zsh setup all tuned for using Solarized on OS X.
• Josh Nichols' Homesick makes it easy to symlink and clone dotfiles repos.
• Anders Ingemann's homeshick is like Homesick but in bash.
• Ben Alman's dotfiles support different configurations per OS, linking, copying and environment setup.
• Paul Miller’s dotfiles feature greatly customized zsh with auto-completion and syntax highlighting, a bunch of useful git extras and colourful themes for OS X Terminal and Sublime Text 2.

Go farther with a framework

For a lot of us, a big chunk of our ~ folder is devoted to our shell and our text editor. Until you're ready to roll your own setup, these projects make customization safe and easy.

• oh-my-zsh is a community-driven framework for managing your Zsh configuration. It bundles 40+ plugins and 80+ themes.
• bash-it is a "shameless ripoff of oh-my-zsh," but for bash.
• Janus is a distribution of plug-ins and mappings for Vim, Gvim and MacVim.
• Brandon Philip's ghar is a standalone Python script for managing git repos symlinked into your home.
• Ben Alman's dotfiles support different configurations per OS, linking, copying and environment setup.
• fresh is a tool to source dotfiles from others into your own. It supports shell configuration (aliases, functions, etc.) as well as config files (e.g. ackrc and gitconfig). Think of it as Bundler for your dotfiles.

Don't ignore your .gitignore

GitHub has a great collection of .gitignore templates for a wide range of languages and editors. We recommend Simon Whitaker's shell script to help you manage them.

Embrace submodules

Consider using Git submodules as you start to add 3^rd party frameworks, scripts, and plugins. Submodules make managing dotfile dependencies with so much easier.

FAQ

Why create this site?

Some of your fellow GitHub friends have found incredible value in digging through Other People's Dotfiles (OPD). We aim to share that knowledge with you, our fellow wayfaring stranger in the shell.

You totally need to know about /my|a/ great /bootstrap|framework/, how do I submit?

Great! We're always looking for new projects to follow. Please connect with us on Twitter.

Oh no! I've committed passwords/API keys/other sensitive data!

We've got you covered! Take a look at the sensitive data removal guide.

Your FAQ is weak. It so did not answer my question.

That's not a question. But feel free to ask us anything on Twitter. Maybe we can expand this list.

Contribute

Want to help out? Great! Submit a feature request, open an issue, or submit a patch.