diff --git a/dotfiles b/dotfiles
index ecca5ed..628dca4 100755
--- a/dotfiles
+++ b/dotfiles
@@ -144,12 +144,14 @@ edit_info() {
     git --git-dir "$dotfiles_dir" checkout --quiet
 }
 
-readme() {
-    local readme_file="$(mktemp --suffix .md)"
-    git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" show :README.md > "$readme_file"
-    ${EDITOR:-vim} "$readme_file"
-    git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" update-index --add --cacheinfo 10064,$(git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" hash-object -w "$readme_file"),README.md
-    rm "$readme_file"
+sparse_edit() {
+    local original_file="${1:-README.md}" sparse_file extension ; shift
+    extension=$([[ "$original_file" = *.* ]] && echo ".${original_file##*.}" || echo '')
+    sparse_file="$(mktemp --suffix "$extension")"
+    git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" show :"$original_file" > "$sparse_file"
+    ${EDITOR:-vim} "$sparse_file"
+    git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" update-index --add --cacheinfo 10064,$(git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" hash-object -w "$sparse_file"),"$original_file"
+    rm "$sparse_file"
     git --git-dir "$dotfiles_dir" checkout --quiet
 }
 
@@ -175,8 +177,11 @@ case $dot_cmd in
     attributes)
         edit_info attributes .gitattributes "$@"
         ;;
+    edit)
+        sparse_edit "$@"
+        ;;
     readme)
-        $dot_cmd
+        sparse_edit README.md "$@"
         ;;
     *)
         git --git-dir="$dotfiles_dir" $dot_cmd "$@"