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 # yadm - Yet Another Dotfiles Manager
+_A house that does not have one warm, comfy chair in it is soulless._ --May Sarton
 
-To be written...
+When you live in a command line, configurations are a deeply personal thing. They are often crafted over years of experience, battles lost, lessons learned, advice followed, and ingenuity rewarded. When you are away from your own configurations, you are an orphaned refugee in unfamiliar and hostile surroundings. You feel clumsy and out of sorts. You are filled with a sense of longing to be back in a place you know. A place you built. A place where all the short-cuts have been worn bare by your own travels. A place you proudly call... `$HOME`.
 
-For now, read the [man page](yadm.md).
+## Introduction
+_Seek home for rest, for home is best._ --Thomas Tusser
+
+As so many others, I started out with a repository and a few scripts to symbolically link them around my home directory. This quickly became inadequate and I looked for solutions elsewhere. I've used two excellent tools; [homeschick](https://github.com/andsens/homeshick), and [vcsh](https://github.com/RichiH/vcsh). These tools are great, and you should check them out to understand their strengths. However, I didn't find all of the features I personally wished for in a single tool. **yadm** was written with the following goals:
+
+  - Use a single repository
+  - Few dependencies
+  - Ability to use alternate files based on OS or host
+  - Ability to encrypt and track confidential files
+  - Stay out of the way and let Git do what it's good at
+
+## Getting Started
+_I would not change my blest estate for all the world calls good or great._ --Isaac Watts
+
+If you know how to use Git, then you already [know](yadm.md) how to use **yadm**.
+
+
+#### If you don't currently have a repository
+Start out with an empty local repository
+
+    yadm init
+    yadm add <important file>
+    yadm commit
+
+Eventually you will want to push the local repo to a remote.
+
+    yadm remote add origin <url>
+    yadm push -u origin master
+
+#### If you have an existing remote repository
+This `clone` will attempt to merge your existing repository, but if it fails, it will do a reset instead and you'll have to decide best on how resolve the differences.
+
+
+    yadm clone <url>
+    yadm status
+
+
+See the [man page](yadm.md) for a comprehensive explanation of commands and options, but the following should be enough to get you started.
+
+## Strategies for alternate files on different systems
+_I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad._ --George Bernard Shaw
+
+Where possible, you should try to use the same file on every system. Here are a few examples:
+
+### Vim
+
+    let OS=substitute(system('uname -s'),"\n","","")
+    if (OS == "Darwin")
+      " do something that only makes sense on a Mac
+    endif
+
+### Tmux
+
+    # use reattach-to-user-namespace as the default command on OSX
+    if-shell "test -f /usr/local/bin/reattach-to-user-namespace" 'set -g default-command "reattach-to-user-namespace -l bash"'
+
+### Bash
+
+    system_type=$(uname -s)
+    if [ "$system_type" = "Darwin" ]; then
+      eval $(gdircolors $HOME/.dir_colors)
+    else
+      eval $(dircolors -b $HOME/.dir_colors)
+    fi
+
+However, sometimes the type of file you are using doesn't allow for this type of logic. If a configuration can do an "include", you can include a specific alternate version using **yadm**. Consider these three files:
+
+### Git
+
+    #---- .gitconfig -----------------
+    [log]
+      decorate = short
+      abbrevCommit = true
+    [include]
+      path = .gitconfig.local
+
+    #---- .gitconfig.local##Darwin ---
+    [user]
+      name = Tim Byrne
+      email = tim@personal.email.org
+
+    #---- .gitconfig.local##Linux ----
+    [user]
+      name = Dr. Tim Byrne
+      email = dr.byrne@work.email.com
+
+Configuring Git this way includes `.gitconfig.local` in the standard `.gitconfig`. **yadm** will automatically link the correct version based on the operation system. The bulk of your configurations can go in a single file, and you just put the exceptions in OS-specific files.
+<!-- vim: set spell lbr : -->