Stow

stow Plugin

GNU Stow manages packages of software and their associated config files from a central directory using symlinks.

Commands

• stow _ _ — Passthrough to stow CLI

Usage

Basic Commands

# Stow a package (create symlinks from target to stow dir)
stow _ _ <package>

# Unstow a package (remove symlinks)
stow _ _ -D <package>

# Restow (unstow then stow again)
stow _ _ -R <package>

# Target a specific directory
stow _ _ -t /target/dir <package>

# Dry run (show what would happen)
stow _ _ -n <package>

# Verbose output
stow _ _ -v <package>

Dotfile Management Example

# ~/dotfiles/
# ├── bash/
# │   └── .bashrc
# ├── git/
# │   ├── .gitconfig
# │   └── .gitignore_global
# └── nvim/
#     ├── .config/
#     │   └── nvim/
#     │       └── init.lua

# Stow specific package
stow _ _ bash
stow _ _ git
stow _ _ nvim

# Unstow a package
stow _ _ -D bash

# Restow all
stow _ _ -R bash git nvim

Key Features

• Symlink management — Create and remove symlink farms
• Dotfile management — Organized dotfile deployment
• Package management — Manage installed packages
• Conflict detection — Detects conflicting symlinks
• Dry run mode — Preview changes before applying
• Selective targeting — Stow to specific directories
• Adopt mode — Move existing files into stow directory

Notes

• Stow NEVER touches files outside the target directory
• Works with any directory structure (not just dotfiles)
• Uses relative symlinks when possible (stow directory under target)
• Default target is parent of the stow directory