A bash script to restore dotfiles to ~/ from somewhere else (probably files under a git repository). Allows you to keep *some* of your dotfiles in git without needing everything, and a fast way to restore them on a new box.

restore_dotfiles.sh

#!/bin/bash

function link_files_to_folder() {
    if [[ ! -d $1 || ! -d $2 ]] ; then
        echo "Usage: link_files_to_folder <source_dir> <target_dir> [prefix]"
        exit
    fi

    SOURCE_DIR=$1
    TARGET_DIR=$2
    PREFIX=$3

    echo "Processing $SOURCE_DIR"
    echo

    cd $SOURCE_DIR
    SOURCE_DIR=$(pwd)

    mkdir -p $TARGET_DIR
    for i in * ; do
        SOURCE_FILE=$i
        TARGET_FILE=$PREFIX$i

        echo "Processing $SOURCE_FILE"
        if [ -e $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE -o -L $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE ] 
        then
            echo "   Already exists - backing up"
            mv $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE.`date +"%Y%m%d-%H%M"`
        fi
        echo "   Linking $SOURCE_DIR/$SOURCE_FILE to $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE"
        ln -s $SOURCE_DIR/$SOURCE_FILE $TARGET_DIR/$TARGET_FILE
    done
    cd ..
    
    echo
    echo

}

link_files_to_folder applications ~/.local/share/applications
link_files_to_folder dotfiles ~ .