I think that in this case like in many others, the more the tool approximates the behavior of something you already know, the easier it is to use. I don't want to lose time learning yet another tool just for syncing 7 dotfiles from a machine to another.

I've been going with `vcsh`[1] for 2 years now -- essentially a wrapper git that works with a home directory git repo without all the annoyances. To be fair I don't even exactly knows how it works (which may be a testament to how nicely it is done). It's just basic git commands and it doesn't create a .git in your home folder.

As simple as : $ vcsh {name_of_repo} status # check changed files $ vcsh {name_of_repo} add .. $ vcsh {name_of_repo} commit .. $ vcsh {name_of_repo} pull .. $ vcsh {name_of_repo} push ..

[1]: https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh