Dotfiles

My macOS / Ubuntu dotfiles.

Shamelessly copied from https://github.com/cowboy/dotfiles

Some notable tweaks:

• Use zsh shell.
• Pure prompt.
• Volta to manage JavaScript command-line tools (i.e. NodeJS, yarn, etc).
• Teamocil for creating tmux panes and windows.
• Hyper with Snazzy theme.

About this project

I finally decided that I wanted to be able to execute a single command to "bootstrap" a new system to pull down all of my dotfiles and configs, as well as install all the tools I commonly use. In addition, I wanted to be able to re-execute that command at any time to synchronize anything that might have changed. Finally, I wanted to make it easy to re-integrate changes back in, so that other machines could be updated.

That command is dotfiles, and this is my "dotfiles" Git repo.

How the "dotfiles" command works

When dotfiles is run for the first time, it does a few things:

1. In Ubuntu, Git is installed if necessary via APT (it's already there in macOS).
2. This repo is cloned into your user directory, under ~/.dotfiles.
3. Files in /copy are copied into ~/. (read more)
4. Files in /link are symlinked into ~/. (read more)
5. Files in /config are symlinked into ~/.config. (read more)
6. You are prompted to choose scripts in /init to be executed. The installer attempts to only select relevant scripts, based on the detected OS and the script filename.
7. Your chosen init scripts are executed (in alphanumeric order, hence the funky names). (read more)

On subsequent runs, step 1 is skipped, step 2 just updates the already-existing repo, and step 5 remembers what you selected the last time. The other steps are the same.

Other subdirectories

• The /backups directory gets created when necessary. Any files in ~/ that would have been overwritten by files in /copy or /link get backed up there.
• The /bin directory contains executable shell scripts (including the dotfiles script) and symlinks to executable shell scripts. This directory is added to the path.
• The /caches directory contains cached files, used by some scripts or functions.
• The /conf directory just exists. If a config file doesn't need to go in ~/, reference it from the /conf directory.
• The /source directory contains files that are sourced whenever a new shell is opened (in alphanumeric order, hence the funky names).
• The /test directory contains unit tests for especially complicated bash functions.
• The /vendor directory contains third-party libraries.

The "copy" step

Any file in the /copy subdirectory will be copied into ~/. Any file that needs to be modified with personal information (like copy/.gitconfig which contains an email address and private key) should be copied into ~/. Because the file you'll be editing is no longer in ~/.dotfiles, it's less likely to be accidentally committed into your public dotfiles repo.

The "link" step

Any file in the /link subdirectory gets symlinked into ~/ with ln -s. Edit one or the other, and you change the file in both places. Don't link files containing sensitive data, or you might accidentally commit that data! If you're linking a directory that might contain sensitive data (like ~/.ssh) add the sensitive files to your .gitignore file!

The "config" step

Same as the link step except that all files get symlinked into ~/.config.

The "init" step

Scripts in the /init subdirectory will be executed. A whole bunch of things will be installed, but only if they aren't already.

macOS

• Minor XCode init via the init/10_osx_xcode.sh script
• Homebrew via the init/20_osx_homebrew.sh script
• Homebrew recipes via the init/30_osx_homebrew_recipes.sh script
• Homebrew casks via the init/30_osx_homebrew_casks.sh script

Ubuntu

• APT packages and git-extras via the init/20_ubuntu_apt.sh script

Both

• Set zsh as the default login shell via the init/40_zsh.sh scrip
• Volta with Node.js, npm and yarn via the init/50_node.sh script

Hacking my dotfiles

Because the dotfiles script is completely self-contained, you should be able to delete everything else from your dotfiles repo fork, and it will still work. The only thing it really cares about are the /copy, /link and /init subdirectories, which will be ignored if they are empty or don't exist.

If you modify things and notice a bug or an improvement, file an issue or a pull request and let me know.

Also, before installing, be sure to read my gently-worded note.

Installation

macOS Notes

You need to have XCode or, at the very minimum, the XCode Command Line Tools, which are available as a much smaller download.

The easiest way to install the XCode Command Line Tools in macOS 10.9+ is to open up a terminal, type xcode-select --install and follow the prompts.

Tested in macOS 10.14

Ubuntu Notes

You might want to set up your ubuntu server like I do it, but then again, you might not.

Either way, you should at least update/upgrade APT with sudo apt-get -qq update && sudo apt-get -qq dist-upgrade first.

Tested in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

Heed this critically important warning before you install

If you're not me, please do not install dotfiles directly from this repo!

Why? Because I often completely break this repo while updating. Which means that if I do that and you run the dotfiles command, your home directory will burst into flames, and you'll have to go buy a new computer. No, not really, but it will be very messy.

Actual installation

1. Read my gently-worded note
2. Fork this repo
3. Open a terminal/shell and do this (change oyvinmar and master as appropriate):

Ubuntu

export DOTFILES_GH_USER=oyvinmar
export DOTFILES_GH_BRANCH=master
bash -c "$(wget -qO- https://raw.github.com/$DOTFILES_GH_USER/dotfiles/$DOTFILES_GH_BRANCH/bin/dotfiles)" && zsh

macOS

export DOTFILES_GH_USER=oyvinmar
export DOTFILES_GH_BRANCH=master
bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/$DOTFILES_GH_USER/dotfiles/$DOTFILES_GH_BRANCH/bin/dotfiles)" && zsh

Since you'll be using the dotfiles command on subsequent runs, you'll only have to set the DOTFILES_GH_USER variable for the initial install, but if you have a custom branch, you will need to export DOTFILES_GH_BRANCH for subsequent runs.

There's a lot of stuff that requires admin access via sudo, so be warned that you might need to enter your password here or there.

Actual installation (for me)

Ubuntu

bash -c "$(wget -qO- https://raw.github.com/oyvinmar/dotfiles/master/bin/dotfiles)" && zsh

macOS

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/oyvinmar/dotfiles/master/bin/dotfiles)" && zsh

Aliases and Functions

To keep things easy, the ~/.zshrc file is very simple, and should never need to be modified. Instead, add your aliases, functions, settings, etc into one of the files in the source subdirectory, or add a new file. They're all automatically sourced when a new shell is opened. Take a look, I have a lot of aliases and functions.

Scripts

In addition to the aforementioned dotfiles script, there are a few other bin scripts.

• dotfiles - (re)initialize dotfiles. It might ask for your password (for sudo).
• src - (re)source all files in /source directory
• Look through the bin subdirectory for a few more.

License

Copyright (c) 2019 Øyvind Marthinsen Licensed under the MIT license.