GNU Stow

Keeps dotfiles in one Git repository and symlinks them into place, one package at a time.

What it does

Stow takes a directory that mirrors the layout of a target tree and creates symlinks for everything in it. For dotfiles that means ~/dotfiles/zsh/.zshrc becomes ~/.zshrc, with the real file still under version control.

cd ~/dotfiles
stow zsh tmux starship   # link these packages into $HOME
stow -D tmux             # unlink one
stow -R zsh              # relink after adding files

Why it holds up

There is no database, no daemon and no custom format — just symlinks and a directory convention. Any machine with stow and the repository reproduces the configuration, and git status in the repository shows exactly what has drifted.

Alternative to

Alternative	Type	Trade-off
chezmoi	Open source	Templating, secrets and per-machine differences; the usual choice for complex setups
yadm	Open source	Git wrapped around `$HOME` directly, no symlinks
A bare Git repo with an alias	—	The same as yadm, assembled by hand
dotbot	Open source	A declarative YAML installer instead of a symlink convention
Nix home-manager	Open source	Reproducible to the byte, and a much larger commitment