I'm trying to find a better solution to manage configuration files, both user's dotfiles and system files in /etc.
I'm running an ubuntu server where I have a bunch services with custom configurations, and systemd drop-in files, but on top of that I also have some scripts and user dotfiles that I need to track.

What I'm doing right now is that I have a folder full of symlinks in the admin user's directory (poor username choice, btw) and I'm using bindfs to mount this directory inside a git repository, this way git won't see them as symlinks, and will version them as regular files. The problem with doing this is that as git deletes and rewrites files, bindfs fails to track the changes and converts the symlink to regular files.

I looked into chezmoi, but that is only meant to track user dotfiles and will refuse to add a file from /etc, that is unless doing some extra work. But even so, chezmoi will not track the user:group of files, so I would still have to manage that manually.

I also looked into GNU Stow, and that would not complain about files from /etc or anywhere, but it similarly will not track permissions and I would have to manage that manually.

I see that some people are using ansible to manage dotfiles, but at that point, it would make sense to just migrate to ansible, except I don't want to rebuild my server from scratch to use ansible. Also it looks like a lot to learn.

Is there a better solution I'm not seeing? Maybe something using git hooks?

Edit:

I ended up using pre-commit and post-merge git hooks to launch a python script. The python script reads from a yaml file where I annotate the file paths and permissions, and then copies to or from the file location to the git repository.

I used the sudoers file to allow the admin user to run this specific script with specific arguments as root without password (because the git commands are run from VS Code and not manually), which is dangerous, be careful when doing that. I have taken special care to make this secure:
* I used absolute paths for everything, to avoid allowing running from a different pwd as a way to copy different files
* The script itself is installed in a root-owned location, so an unprevileged user cannot edit it
* The configuration yaml is root-owned, so an unprevileged user cannot modify which files are copied or their permissions
* Configuration files that can grant permission are not managed by this script (the yaml, /etc/passwd, /etc/groups, polkit rules, the sudoers file, ...)

A month old now, but it's important on the unnecessary surveillance creep we keep having. First this, then digital ID.

Worrying levels of authoritarianism that solves nothing. Government are supposed to represent us, not ignore us and treat us like children. Who are they working for?

UK Age Verification Data Confirms What Critics Always Predicted: Mass Migration To Sketchier Sites

New data from the UK’s age verification rollout provides hard evidence of what internet governance experts have been warning about for years: these laws don’t protect children—they syst…

^Techdirt

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/italy-bans-pro-palestinian-october-7-demonstration-bologna-tensions-rise-2025-10-06/

The company has already blocked the popular oobe\bypassnro command that people used to skip parts of the initial setup, and now, Microsoft is doubling down on its efforts. In the latest Windows 11 preview builds, the software giant makes it much harder to install Windows 11 without a Microsoft Account.

https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-makes-it-even-harder-to-install-windows-11-without-a-microsoft-account-or-internet/

From cancelling the carbon tax to pausing the electric vehicle mandate, the Carney government is making sweeping changes to the country’s environmental rules

How Mark Carney is complicating Canada’s climate progress | The Narwhal

From cancelling the ‘carbon tax’ to pausing the EV mandate, Mark Carney’s government is making sweeping changes to Canada’s environmental rules

^{Carl Meyer (The Narwhal)}

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/cop/eu-push-development-banks-climate-focus-despite-us-opposition-draft-shows-2025-10-07/

Sensitive content Clicca per aprire/chiudere

My WiFi is ‘Secret Rebel Base’.

My neighbours have added ‘Java the Hub’, ‘Obi Lan Kenobi’, and ‘Red WiFi-ve Standing By’. This makes me happy.

Anyone else live in a neighbourhood that embraces this kind of WiFi silliness?

French Member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, of Palestinian origin, said she was beaten by 'Israeli' police after the interception of the Global Sumud Flotilla en route to Gaza.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse at Athens International Airport on Monday, where she arrived alongside other deported activists including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, Hassan said, “I was beaten while being put into a police car by two Israeli officers.” Wearing gray prison garments similar to those worn by Thunberg, she added, “We have a lot to reveal,” condemning the treatment they received and affirming that “some of us were beaten.”

Hassan did not provide further details about the alleged assault, stating only, “Sometimes there were 13 to 15 of us in a single cell, not on beds but on mats on the floor… in the high-security Israeli prison in the Negev. We lacked everything.” Thunberg, speaking from Athens, also denounced “mistreatment and abuses” during her detention but did not go into specifics.

"I was beaten by Israeli police," says European MEP Rima Hassan after Sumud Flotilla detention

^{Roya News}

2025-10-07T12:20:11.488023Z  WARN Error encountered while processing the incoming HTTP request: lemmy_server::root_span_builder: CommunityHasNoFollowers: CommunityHasNoFollowers
   0: lemmy_apub::activities::community::announce::receive
             at crates/apub/src/activities/community/announce.rs:161
   1: lemmy_server::root_span_builder::HTTP request
           with http.method=POST http.scheme="http" http.host=lemmy.domain.ext http.target=/inbox otel.kind="server" request_id=02568c66-9ed6-4eb0-b533-77b19rcdef56 http.status_code=400 otel.status_code="OK"
             at src/root_span_builder.rs:16

As the federal government appeared headed for a shutdown early last week, Jenna Norton joined a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol to urge lawmakers not to be cowed by the Trump administration's threat of mass layoffs.

"As a federal worker, I am here to tell you that every awful thing that would happen in a shutdown — shuttering programs that Americans rely on, damaging our economy, firing federal workers — all of this is already happening," said Norton, a program director with the National Institutes of Health, who spoke in her personal capacity alongside other civil servants.

...

Now furloughed, Norton continues to implore members of Congress to reject a spending deal that maintains the status quo. Instead, she hopes they'll use the moment to assert their constitutional authority — their power of the purse — to take back control of government spending.

"They accepted a position of power and privilege of representing the American people," Norton said in an interview with NPR. "If they're serious about doing that, they need to stand up and represent the American people and push back against a president who wants to be king."

Archived at web.archive.org/web/2025100712…

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