Stow Makefile

Enhanced GNU stow helper with colored output and useful targets.

Original: https://github.com/nbeaver/stow-makefile

Quick Start

mkdir ~/stow-packages && cd ~/stow-packages
# get the Makefile
mkdir vim-config && touch vim-config/.vimrc
make

Targets

• make / make stow — stow all packages to $HOME
• make dry-run — preview changes without applying
• make restow — restow existing packages
• make delete — remove stowed symlinks
• make clean-broken — list broken symlinks in $HOME
• make clean-broken go — remove broken symlinks (no confirmation)

Options

• IGNORE_PACKAGES="pkg1 pkg2" — skip specific packages
• VERBOSITY=2 with make stow-verbose — detailed output
• STOW_ONLY=1 with clean-broken — only scan stow-managed links
• NO_COLOR=1 — disable colors

.stowignore

Create .stowignore in repo root to ignore packages (one per line, comments allowed):

# temporary packages
test-config
old-vim

Moving Stow Directory

make delete                    # unstow everything
mv ~/stow-packages ~/new-path  # move directory
cd ~/new-path && make          # restow from new location