User-specific application configuration is traditionally stored in so called dotfiles and stored in the home directory. By moving these to a separate directory, you can keep your dotfiles out of your home directory and still have access to them.

You can also maintain them in a git repository and use them in other situations like for GitHub Codespaces or VSCode devcontainers. Both can use a plain git repository to retreive and install the dotfiles from in the container.

Aliases set in git

• changelog: Generates a changelog
• undo: Delete all commits not pushed to remote yes

Remarks for some dotfiles

.gitignore

By default, the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/ignore file is used as a global gitignore file but requires a script to be run to set it up with a separate command. When the separate command install.sh is being used then all other files have to be setup via the install.sh script as well.

The alternative is to use the ~/.gitignore file as a global gitignore file. This can be done by setting the core.excludesfile configuration option to the path of the ~/.gitignore file with the command below to set it globally.

git config --global core.excludesfile ~/.gitignore

.gitattributes

By default, the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/git/attributes file is used as a global gitattributes file but requires a script to be run to set it up with a separate command. When the separate command install.sh is being used then all other files have to be setup via the install.sh script as well.

The alternative is to use the ~/.gitattributes file as a global gitattributes file. This can be done by setting the core.attributesfile configuration option to the path of the ~/.gitattributes file with the command below to set it globally.

git config --global core.attributesfile ~/.gitattributes

.gitconfig

The .gitconfig file is used to configure git. And the ~/.gitconfig file is updated in the final step by the GitHub Codespaces to set the user name and email address.

Sources for dotfiles

• EditorConfig
• gitattributes
• gitignore can be set per project or directory, or also global as used here