Has anybody experience with dot-file-management tools such as #chezmoi, #dotbot, #rcm, #vcsh, #yadm, bare git?

Naïve symlinks don't work for me any more.

Maybe I'll test chezmoi first as it looks promising without having compared it to others besides reading https://www.chezmoi.io/comparison-table/

Write me your experience and if you have tested multiple solutions, I'm very curious about your recommendation!

My requirements: I maintain 3 Debian stable computers (12 + 13). One of them has multiple users (business/private). I share lots of similar config files for shell tools as well as desktop environment (xfce, GNOME, KDE; I probably switch all to KDE). I most probably need a template mechanism to enable host-specific settings. Some config files may not be identical on different hosts, most are (besides host-specific settings). When tools write back to their config files, this should be handled well by the dotfile management tool. Sync via arbitrary sync tool (syncthing or git preferred).

A #debian cry for help: I need to update the packaging for #vcsh to modern standards before the freeze hits. It's trivially easy in theory, but I just lack the spoons.

I keep being laughably busy with really meaningful work, but I can't make the time to sit down a few hours and read.
Three major projects will conclude soon, but then it's likely too late.

Any help or co-maintainers appreciated.

Retoots OK; being vulnerable in public is Good Actually(TM).

How do y'all manage your #dotfiles? I just create manual folders with #git, but I'm looking for a better (less manual) solution.

#chezmoi #yadm #linux #git #dotbot #rcm #vcsh

There's a long running joke about this being the year of Linux on the desktop. But for me I've used Linux - or some other Unix - as my desktop for decades. Things have changed over the years but a big one is that computers have gotten way cheaper and more mobile.

One way I deal with it is to use #vcsh to manage my home directory. I've written up how I do it in this: https://phrye.com/tags/vcsh/

Happy to answer questions if people are curious.