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see README.md for information

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 # dots
 
-configuration files for various programs and convenience scripts.
\ No newline at end of file
+configuration files for various programs and convenience scripts.
+
+## INSTALL
+
+these dots can be installed in two different ways.
+NOTE: install script does not exist yet. please follow MANUAL for now.
+
+### MANUAL:
+
+to manually install, simply copy the contents of config/ to your `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME` (`$HOME/.config` by default) directory.
+the contents of the data/ folder corresponds with your `$XDG_DATA_HOME` (`$HOME/.local/share` by default) directory.
+the contents of the bin/ folder should be placed anywhere within your `$PATH` (likely `$HOME/.local/bin` or `$HOME/bin`)
+for the most part these should function fairly standalone, but please check DEPENDENCIES.md to see what each file needs if you were to use them. this may be other files in this repo, and sometimes specific programs outside this repo.
+if you want to preserve space or make updating the dotfiles easier, symlink the desired files to their destinations instead of copying them. this has the unfortunate side-effect of the user modifying files causing updates to break. however, this can be remedied if you maintain your modifications in a separate git branch. when you need to update, simply switch back to the master branch, update, switch back to your custom branch, and merge from master:
+```shell
+git checkout -b config
+# make edits to whatever files
+git commit -a your changed files
+git checkout master
+git pull
+git checkout config
+git merge master
+```