commit 26a987a95e80b9464ed7aca6397e9ff3ed3120b6
parent de849cbac2bc4d2a0bc35c812c75736a82801e4a
Author: Sebastiano Tronto <sebastiano@tronto.net>
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:30:51 +0200
New blog post
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+# Dotfiles backup and bootstrap
+
+It took me more than 18 years of using Linux, but I have finally bought
+a used [Thinkpad](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad), thus becoming
+a *real* Linux user. To be specific, I got a Thinkpad L13 from ~2020 with
+an Intel i5 CPU and 8Gb of RAM.
+
+After I bought the laptop, it was time to set it up to my likings. I usually
+do this by installing a Linux distro and then manually copying my
+configuration files (a.k.a. *dotfiles*) from some messy backup folder. Since
+I do this quite rarely, and since when I do I also tend to pick a different distro
+just to try it out, I have never bothered automating this process...
+
+...But not anymore! This time I decided to set things up properly.
+
+## OS choice: Alpine Linux
+
+For the operating system, I chose [Alpine Linux](https://alpinelinux.org/).
+It is an extremely simple Linux distribution that relies on minimalistic
+core tools - for example, it uses [busybox](https://busybox.net/) instead of
+[GNU coreutils](https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/) and
+[OpenRC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenRC) instead of
+[SystemD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SystemD). Its package manager is incredibly
+fast (and it can be used [declaratively](../2025-08-16-alpine-declarative)) and
+it's [wiki](https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Main_Page) is well-maintained.
+I am liking it a lot, but your mileage may vary - especially because it uses
+[musl](https://musl.libc.org/) as the system C library, breaking compatibility
+with some pre-built applications and, notably, with video streaming platforms
+that rely on [DRM](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management).
+
+Other options I considered were [Void Linux](https://voidlinux.org),
+that I have happily used since 2020, [OpenBSD](https://www.openbsd.org),
+that I am using on my server and on my old [netbook](../2022-09-10-netbooks),
+[Debian](https://www.debian.org), that I am using on my [gaming
+desktop](../2023-10-15-build-time) and [Slackware](http://www.slackware.com),
+the old time favorite that I used back in 2009-2013. I am not going to explain
+the reasons why I settled on Alpine in the end; it is mostly a matter of
+personal preference anyway.
+
+## Configuration files as a git repository
+
+As for my configuration files, they are now managed via a [git
+repository](https://git.tronto.net/config), as explained in [this blog post
+by Drew De Vault](https://drewdevault.com/blog/dotfiles). In short:
+
+* My home directory is a git repository.
+* All files are ignored by default (my `.gitignore` contains a single line: `*`).
+* Configuration files that I wish to track are manually added with
+ `git add -f my_file`.
+
+This way, the path of each file is preserved in the structure of the
+repository, and cloning it into a new system's `$HOME` makes everything
+fall into place.
+
+There is a small caveat with this setup: every file and directory that is
+directly or indirectly contained in my home, even if `gitignore`'d, is now
+part of this git repository. This includes other git repositories, and this
+could break certain development tools - for example, I had issues with
+[ty](https://docs.astral.sh/ty) ignoring all files due to them being
+`gitignore`'d by my configuration file repository.
+
+While I was at it, I have also moved my [scripts](https://git.tronto.net/scripts)
+into this repository, since they are part of my desktop setup anyway.
+
+## Bootstrapping
+
+Copying configuration files into the right place is not the only thing
+I need to do when I set up a new laptop. I also need to install packages,
+build some software from source (for example, [dwm](https://dwm.suckless.org)),
+edit some configuration files that are outside of `$HOME` (for example,
+in `/etc`), and so on.
+
+I tried to automate these steps as much as I could turned them into [a
+script](https://git.tronto.net/config/file/scripts/setup-config-alpine.html). I
+won't explain everything it does here, you can just read through it if you want -
+it is pretty self-explanatory. This script also takes care of cloning the dotfiles
+repository I mentioned above, so when I set up a new system I just need to download
+a copy of this script from my server and run it.
+
+The script ends by printing some instruction on the remaining manual steps,
+such as uploading my SSH keys into some machines that I regularly
+access remotely and copying copying some secrets into `.ssh`.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+This setup may be a bit overengineered, but it gives me a consistent way to
+quickly set up a new computer, and it also serves as documentation on my local
+configuration.
