From 2cb5d6e8ef2eb856456aff8f9b52fd63f5caabad Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Zakariyya Mughal <zaki.mughal@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2024 22:42:21 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Add note about using GNU Stow

---
 doc/development/design/index.mdwn | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/doc/development/design/index.mdwn b/doc/development/design/index.mdwn
index 4657975..8e0e788 100644
--- a/doc/development/design/index.mdwn
+++ b/doc/development/design/index.mdwn
@@ -463,6 +463,11 @@
 - Some projects need external data
     * Perhaps these can also be modeled as "packages"?
     * "Data packages" as opposed to "Software packages"
+    * Trick: using GNU Stow to manage symlink to data directory structure while
+      keeping the data as read-only. This can be used for host-specific data
+      (e.g., `.env` deployment configurations by `$HOSTNAME`) and to avoid
+      accidentally deleting data when cleaning project directory
+      (e.g., `make clean`, `git clean`).
 
 # Organisation of project