Efficiently Tracking and Updating configs (dotfiles) from Multiple GitHub Repositories

Question

I'm tracking several GitHub repositories, from which I often fetch configuration files for tools like mpv and hyprland. Given that these repositories frequently receive updates, I'm seeking a more efficient process to pull the latest changes without manually inspecting each repository and merging with my custom changes.

Current Process:

1. Subscribe to changes on these repositories.
2. Manually download the updated config files.
3. Compare old and new config files (figure out what thing i chaged in which config, which was changed by developer)
4. Resolve conflicts manually.
5. Repeat this cycle.

Repositories (for reference, there are many more):

• https://github.com/Eisa01/mpv-scripts
• https://github.com/occivink/mpv-scripts
• https://github.com/CogentRedTester/mpv-file-browser
• https://github.com/po5/mpv_sponsorblock
• https://github.com/prasanthrangan/hyprdots

This problem isn't new but i can't find any reference to this. Maybe i can't phrase it correctly.Does anyone have any strategies, scripts or tools help streamline this process? I'd like to be able to easily pull updates, see differences, and manage conflicts more efficiently.

Answer 1

These are all git repositories. So IMO the right thing to do is use Git for your changes. So:

1. Keep your changes in a commit on top of master/main/whatever branch, or multiple commits in another branch (depending on how many changes and what kind of changes you make).
2. Update master/main/whatever and rebase your changes on latest commit. Git will then either merge the changes automatically where it can or fall back to the shell where you can use git mergetool. Then you'll be able to easily tell which changes are yours and which came from upstream.