Symlinks

By default, DotR copies files from the repository to their destination. For configs you edit frequently and want to reflect immediately — no update step — a package can instead be deployed as a symlink.

[packages.nvim]
src = "dotfiles/nvim"
dest = "~/.config/nvim/"
symlink = true

Importing with a symlink

dotr import ~/.config/nvim/ --symlink

--symlink sets symlink = true on the new package and immediately deploys it (a plain dotr import only copies into the repository and registers the package, without deploying).

How it works

1. import copies the source into dotfiles/<name>/ in the repository, as normal.
2. deploy copies those files again into deployed/<name>/ (a staging directory at the repository root — dotr init adds deployed to .gitignore, since it’s derived, not source, content).
3. deploy then creates a symlink at the package’s dest pointing at deployed/<name>/.

dotfiles/nvim/   (repository — source of truth, git-tracked)
      │  deploy copies files
      ▼
deployed/nvim/   (staging — gitignored)
      ▲  symlink
      │
~/.config/nvim/  (dest — symlinked to deployed/nvim/)

Editing files at ~/.config/nvim/ edits deployed/nvim/ directly (it’s a symlink), so changes take effect immediately. Run dotr update to copy those changes back into dotfiles/nvim/ when you’re ready to commit them.

Redeploying

If dest already exists (as a symlink, a directory, or a plain file) when deploy runs, it’s removed first and replaced with the fresh symlink — so re-running dotr deploy after changing symlink = true/false correctly switches a package between copy-mode and symlink-mode.