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Stow .dotfiles

Backup dotfiles using gnu stow

Jun 2, 2025

Ensure stow is installed. Using apt, it can be installed with…

sh
sudo apt install -y stow

Basic workflow:

In the root dir of the .dotfiles repo, to see changes before applying the symlinks, run

sh
stow --adopt -nvt ~ *

Remove the -n flag to apply the symlinks

sh
stow --adopt -vt ~ *

# To remove the symlinks, add the -D flag
stow --adopt -vDt ~ *

Optionally, you can increase verbose level to see more info about the process.

sh
stow --adopt --verbose=2 -t ~ *