Worth noting that this is GNU-specific! For macOS for example, you’d have to install GNU userland (e.g. from homebrew) to get the flag. There’s still value in using other solutions (such as ln), portability-wise.

As an aside: I mostly think of the ln param orders as exactly the same as cp and mv:

cp FROM TO
mv FROM TO
ln [-s] FROM TO

Maybe that could help!

Right! Recursive is implied by -a

Yep. There’s a single ./install script in project root that calls install-cfg and install-plugins. I only really need to run it once (first time I set up on a machine), and every time I add a new file. If all I’ve done is update existing files, a simple git pull will update my dotfiles’ content automatically, as everything is symlinked already.

I agree with @glad_cat@lemmy.sdf.org, all of these are just different ways to skin the cat. Whatever gets the files in the proper directories. Once you pick one (even arbitrarily, to a degree), you’ll very likely find no reason to push you toward another solution. I myself use symlinks with GNU cp -s

There had been posts here, but we might be getting hit with this issue: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/602126