Dotfiles

This repository represents my personal "dotfiles", settings and instructions to setup the perfect development environment on a Mac Os X machine. This will help me to setup again a machine after a fresh install and hopefully help someone else out there.

These settings have been tested on Mac Os X Mavericks and El Capitan but they can be adapted to another Os X version with some tweaks.

Preparation

Before installing the dotfiles I perform some extra steps to assure to have everything functioning for the following steps

1. If installing under Mac Os then open the files osx_installation/README.md and follow the instruction under the Preparation section.
2. Generate github and bitbucket ssh keys:
   • run ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "your_email@example.com"
   • enter a passphrase (annotate it!)
   • pbcopy < ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
   • go to Github profile/account/Edit Profile/SSH Keys/Add SSH Key and paste the previously copied ssh key. You can follow a similar process for Bitbucket
     • ssh -T git@github.com to verify that the settings are ok
     • The first time you will be asked to insert your pass-phrase, do it and then tell keychain to remember it. From now on you won't be asked again for the pass-phrase.
     • In case everything was set up correctly you should get a message Hi YourUserName! You've successfully authenticated, but GitHub does not provide shell access.
   • go to BitBucket Profile/ Bitbucket Settings/ SSH Keys/ Add Key
     • switch the default url scheme from https to ssh
     • ssh -T git@bitbucket.com to verify that the settings are ok
     • In case everything was set up correctly you should get a message logged in as YourUserName. You can use git or hg to connect to Bitbucket. Shell access is disabled.

Dotfiles installation

Step 1: Installation script

1. cd ~
2. git clone --recursive git@github.com:LeonardoGentile/.dotfiles.git
   if you forgot --recursive option then cd .dotfiles; git submodule update --init
3. cd .dotfiles
4. sh install_dotfiles.sh
5. cd powerline-shell
6. edit config.py (optional)
7. python install.py

This script will:

1. create two directories inside your home directory called .dotfiles_old and bin_old
2. move all existing files contained in the files variable (see step 4 for the list) from your home directory to the .dotfiles_old directory (so you may restore your original files if anything goes wrong)
3. move your ~/bin directory (if it exists) to ~/old_bin (as of point 2 for backup reasons)
   IMPORTANT: if you repeat these steps a second time your personal dotfiles and bin directory (and its contents) will be lost forever! So please put them in a safe place if you really need them!
4. symlink the following files .bash_profile .bashrc .gitattributes .gitconfig .gitignore_global .inputrc .osx .gvimrc .hushlogin .vimrc .wgetrc from the ~/.dotfiles directory to your your home directory.
   NOTE: change the files variable if you want to change this list
5. symlink the ~/.dotfiles/bin directory to ~/bin

Why symlinking?
Whenever you want to modify a files that you are tracking (for example your .bash_profile) you can just cd ~ and edit it from there. What will be actually modified is ~/.dotfiles/.bash_profile. This way all the dotfiles are cleaned organized in the .dotfiles directory and you don't have to remember which files in your home is versioned or not.

Step 2: Dotfiles privates (optional)

Apart from my public dotfiles I keep some private settings in a private repository. Some files I keep there:

• "extra" dotfiles

  • .bashmarks_dirs (extra "bookmarks" directories for bashmarks)

  • .gitconfig_local

      [user]
          name = Name Surname
          email = myemail@myprovider.com
    

  • .shuttle.json for shuttle

  • .z database for z

  • config ssh "bookmarks" config file compatible with shuttle

• applications settings
  • betterTouchTool becase I hate how the default gestures have changed after snow leopard
  • Karabinier because it solves all the problems that apple will never solve
    • org.pqrs.KeyRemap4MacBook.plist
    • private.xml

For installing these private files I do:

• cd ~

• git clone my-private-repo-url.git

• cd .dotfiles-privates

• sh install_private.sh where install_private.sh is a script similar to the one you can see in the step1 that simlynks and copies files around to the right destination, for example:

    dir=~/.dotfiles-privates            # dotfiles directory
    olddir=~/.dotfiles-private_old      # old dotfiles backup directory
    
    # list of files/folders to symlink in homedir
    files=".gitconfig_local .shuttle.json"
    
    # create dotfiles-private_old in homedir
    echo "Creating $olddir for backup of any existing dotfiles-privates in ~"
    mkdir -p $olddir
    # move any existing dotfiles in homedir to dotfiles-private_old directory, then create symlinks
    for file in $files; do
        echo "Moving $file from ~ to $olddir"
        mv ~/$file $olddir
        echo "Creating symlink to $file in home directory.\n"
        ln -s $dir/$file ~/$file
    done
  
    # BASHMARKS DIRS
    echo "Moving .bashmarks_dirs config from ~/.bashmarks_dirs to $olddir"
    mv ~/.bashmarks_dirs $olddir
    echo "Linking bashmarks_dirs from ~/.bashmarks_dirs to $dir/.bashmarks_dirs\n"
    ln -s $dir/.bashmarks_dirs ~/.bashmarks_dirs
  
    # Z database
    echo "Moving .z from ~/.z to $olddir"
    mv ~/.z $olddir
    echo "Linking .z from $dir/.z to ~/.z\n "
    ln -s $dir/.z  ~/.z
  
    # SSH CONFIG
    echo "Moving ssh config from ~/.ssh/config to $olddir"
    mv ~/.ssh/config $olddir
    echo "Linking ssh config from .ssh/config to $dir/config\n"
    ln -s $dir/config ~/.ssh/config
  
    # Karabiner private.xml Config file
    mv ~/Library/Application\ Support/Karabiner/private.xml $olddir
    echo "Linking private.xml from from ~/Library/Application Support/Karabiner/private.xml to $dir/private.xml\n"
    ln -s $dir/private.xml  ~/Library/Application\ Support/Karabiner/private.xml
    
    mv ~/Library/Preferences/org.pqrs.Karabiner.plist $olddir
    echo "Linking private.xml from from ~/Library/Preferences/org.pqrs.Karabiner.plist to $dir/org.pqrs.Karabiner.plist\n"
    ln -s $dir/org.pqrs.Karabiner.plist  ~/Library/Preferences/org.pqrs.Karabiner.plist
  

Wrapping it up

The install_dotfiles.sh script from the step 1 doesn't symlink everything, in fact it will copy some files instead from ~/.dotfiles to ~/:

• .bashmarks_dirs
• .gitconfig_local
• .bash_local

I do so because these are files that I do NOT want to track. The install_dotfiles.sh (step 1) copies them in home and if I edit them in home nothing will happens to the .dotfiles repo. Usually I overwrite these files with the ones coming from .dotfiles-private (install_private.sh from step 2)

OsX Installation Instruction

Follow the instruction listed under the Installation Steps of the ./osx_installation/README.md file.

Voilà!

That's all folks! I spent and I keep on spending a lot of time on my personal dev enviroment and setting it up was not easy. I hope this will help someone. Things are a little dirty and I should clean them up a little bit. Feel free to grab my code and make some correction to the dumb things I've created or written ;)

Thanks to many people:

• https://github.com/javierjulio/dotfiles
• https://github.com/kevinrenskers/dotfiles
• https://github.com/paulirish/dotfiles
• https://github.com/mathiasbynens/dotfiles/

and so many other people from whom I've taken code and inspiration and I've forgot to write them down. Sorry if I haven't included you here, I will try to do my best to remember all the sources!

Disclaimer:

Please try to understand what you type on you terminal before copy-paste and execute.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.