OCD: Obsessively Curated Dotfiles

A simple dotfile management workflow using a bare Git repository stored in $HOME/.ocd, with $HOME itself as the Git work tree. No symlinks, wrappers, or extra dependencies—just Git.

Basic Idea

• Dotfiles tracked directly in $HOME (no symlink farming)
• Git command simplified by ocd alias: git --git-dir=$HOME/.ocd --work-tree=$HOME
• Deploying all your dotfiles to a new machine is a one-liner.

To prevent accidental commits (e.g., ocd add . in $HOME):

• Comprehensive .gitignore_ocd to filter secrets and junk files
• Pre-commit hook warns if too many files at once

Installation

Caution: Using this with existing remote dotfiles will overwrite local files. Backup important files first.

To install, clone this repo, inspect the script, and run:

./ocd-install.sh

The install script:

• Prompts for your dotfile remote URL (GitHub, GitLab, etc.)
• Overwrites existing dotfiles in your home directory from your remote
• Accepts command-line arguments for automated deployment
• Installs a pre-commit hook to warn against committing many files
• Downloads an extensive .gitignore_ocd file (thousands of rules) to avoid accidental commits. Override with -f if needed.

Example

See example.md for how ocd-install.sh looks in action.

Helpful Aliases and Functions

The main alias you need: alias ocd='git --git-dir=$HOME/.ocd --work-tree=$HOME'

See helpers.sh for some handy utilities, including:

• A better ocd function to use instead of the alias above.
• Pushing all dotfiles to a remote host.
• Create a .tar.gz archive with all dotfiles.
• Yoink changes from a remote host for review/add/commit.
• Create a GitHub issue in your dotfiles repo for tracking TODOs.

System-specific configs

To use one set of dotfiles for all my machines, I source configs based on hostname/domain within .bashrc:

for FILE in \
  "${HOME}/.bashrc_$(dnsdomainname -s)" \
  "${HOME}/.bashrc_$(hostname -s)"; do
  [[ -f "${FILE}" ]] && source "${FILE}"
done

This avoids branching and templating complexity.

Using Branches

If preferred, you can still manage different systems using branches. Adjust the ocd alias or workflow as needed.

Complexity vs. Other Tools

This method might seem unusual compared to Stow, dotbot, or chezmoi. However, those tools add dependencies and code complexity. Once familiar, this Git-centric approach feels simpler and safer.

Security Reminder

Always carefully review scripts fetched from the internet before executing them locally. You should probably fork this repo and use your version after you've reviewed it.

Credits

Originally, "OCD" was my own minimal dotfile helper-script based on symlinks. More recently, I found this elegant (and very old) suggestion, and so my workflow became simpler and cleaner—no more symlinks. I wish I had done this years ago!