The Problem 🤕
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I've been using stow for dotfiles management. I don't manage a lot of tools myself. It's been working pretty solid. System management isnt really needed for me as I usually work with Windows.
Thank you for sharing this idea of using Ansible for dotfiles management by the way!
That's the way!!
🔥
Thanks, Nabin! 🙌
Glad you enjoyed this one.
I use stow with a small shell script to install packages I like, depending on OS. It's like, "do we have pacman? Do we have apt? is there a dumb
Applicationsdirectory you need magic powers to access?" and then "install list-of-stuff".Yeah, stow is pretty solid and does almost all the work and combined with sh as you said, that's the way it's supposed to be. And with this new setup that I have with Ansible, it's pretty much the same but the "Ansible" way yk.
BTW, it's good to see you here, man. 🙌
This looks awesome. I store my config on github and no other tool.
I'm curious to about this
Thank You, @williamdk 🙌
Let me know if you give this a shot!
Try this out and let me know how it goes for you!
Pretty cool seeing someone actually wrangle dotfiles and system setup like this - you think most people ever stick with one config, or are we all just endlessly tweaking forever?
Thank you, Nevo! I don't know about anybody else, but for me, my dotfiles change every 2-3 days with just a little tweak. I'm never satisfied with one config. 😂
That sounds like a solid setup! Leveraging a dotfiles repo combined with something like Ansible for full system provisioning is a huge step up from just using GNU Stow—it brings real automation and reproducibility to your environments. It's especially handy when spinning up new machines or VMs, whether locally or in the cloud.
Here are a few suggestions you might consider as you refine your workflow:
Modular Ansible Roles: Break your setup into reusable roles (e.g., dev-tools, terminal, neovim, etc.) so you can apply them selectively based on the machine type (e.g., dev machine vs. server).
Use Tags in Ansible: This allows you to run only certain parts of your playbook (e.g., --tags "dotfiles" or --tags "packages"), which makes testing and updates much easier.
Secrets Management: If you need to manage sensitive data (like SSH keys, API tokens), consider integrating tools like Ansible Vault or sops.
Cross-Platform Support: If you're using both Linux and macOS (or even WSL), you could structure your playbooks to adapt per platform with when: conditions.
CI for Dotfiles: You could even use GitHub Actions or another CI to lint/test your Ansible playbooks or even do dry runs on containerized environments to catch issues before you apply them.
You're on the right path. Once it’s dialed in, a single command to bootstrap your entire environment is a massive time-saver
Managing your development environment across multiple machines can quickly become messy — especially when you have dozens of tools, configurations, and preferences. That’s why I use Ansible to manage my system setup and dotfiles in a clean, repeatable, and version-controlled way.
Kadaich sathiii!! 😍
Thank you, my friend! 🤗
Share your thoughts in the comments! :D
Here's the post on Reddit: reddit.com/r/ansible/comments/1k9x...
This can backfire. I don't think Ansible has all the modules that you might require in the future to manage your system. But, this is a great approach to solving the issue at hand. 👍
Thank you! There's shell support, though, which I think should be enough to get just what I want, even if there's no module support for it.
My team on a small school project once had to work with Ansible for network management. It was really a challenge back then. Interesting to see more use cases for this. 💢
That's great to hear. Thank You, Shayne! Ansible's great, and I've also recently started using it. Keep rocking!! 🔥
From reddit. Great approach for managing config files and folders.
Thanks!
Managing your system configuration and dotfiles efficiently is crucial for both developers and system administrators. With the right tools, you can automate your setup, streamline workflows, and ensure consistency across multiple machines. Ansible is a powerful tool for managing systems, and it's perfect for automating the management of dotfiles and configurations.
What are Dotfiles?
Dotfiles are configuration files for various programs, like .bashrc, .vimrc, .gitconfig, etc. They are typically hidden files that start with a dot (.) in Unix-like operating systems. These files store your personalized configurations and settings for different applications.
Managing a Linux system across multiple devices can be a challenge — especially when you want consistency in your development environment. That’s where Ansible comes in.
In this post, I’ll walk you through how I use Ansible to manage my system and dotfiles, making my system setup reproducible, fast, and version-controlled.
Why Ansible?
Ansible is a powerful configuration management tool that:
Is agentless (uses SSH)
Works cross-platform (ideal for Linux/macOS)
Uses human-readable YAML files
Can manage both dotfiles and system packages
Directory Structure
Here’s a simplified version of my Ansible setup:
bash
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ansible/
├── inventory
│ └── hosts
├── playbook.yml
├── roles/
│ ├── dotfiles/
│ └── packages/
inventory/hosts: Defines your target systems (localhost or remote).
playbook.yml: The main file to run your setup.
roles/: Contains reusable components for dotfiles and packages.
Managing Dotfiles
I keep all my dotfiles (like .bashrc, .vimrc, .gitconfig) in a Git repo and symlink them via Ansible:
yaml
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roles/dotfiles/tasks/main.yml
name: Clone dotfiles repository
git:
repo: 'github.com/myusername/dotfiles.git'
dest: '{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.dotfiles'
name: Symlink .bashrc
file:
src: '{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.dotfiles/bashrc'
dest: '{{ ansible_env.HOME }}/.bashrc'
state: link
force: yes
This ensures consistency every time I set up a new machine.
Installing Packages
I define all essential packages in one place:
yaml
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roles/packages/tasks/main.yml
Running the Playbook
To apply the setup:
bash
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ansible-playbook -i inventory/hosts playbook.yml
That’s it — your environment is ready in minutes!
Benefits I Get
Consistent dev environment across devices
No need to remember what to install/configure
Faster setup for fresh installs or new machines
Easily updatable dotfiles with Git
Clever work you’ve done there.
Heh, I try! Appreciate it 🙌