Dotfiles

Dotfiles are used to configure and personalize your computer environment. This is the collection of files I use when spinning up a new machine (MacOS or Ubuntu).

Before you use these, browse the contents of the repository and see how all the components work together and mesh with your needs. Then go ahead and fork it, remove what you don't need, and build on the rest to create your own flavor.

Installation

To install, run the appropriate command for your system.

⚠️ DO NOT run the setup.sh command if you don't fully understand how it works. It can cause trouble on an already configured system.

MacOS

bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petemcw/dotfiles/master/src/os/setup.sh)"

Ubuntu

bash -c "$(wget -qO - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petemcw/dotfiles/master/src/os/setup.sh)"

✨ All done! ✨

Updates

To update the repository with any new changes and re-run the setup process, simply run the setup.sh script. You can also update a particular component by running the appropriate script.

Customize

You can easily extend the functionality provided by this repository on a local, per-environment basis using the following files.

Git Settings

The ~/.gitconfig.local file will be created for you during installation. It's contents are up to you and will be included after content from ~/.gitconfig allowing you to overwrite and add to the default config.

Example: Use ~/.gitconfig.local to store sensitive information such as credentials:

[commit]
    # Sign commits using GPG.
    # https://help.github.com/articles/signing-commits-using-gpg/
    gpgsign = true

[user]
    signingkey = XXXXXXXX

Shell Settings

The ~/.localrc file will be created for you during installation. It's contents are up to you and will be sourced after all other Zsh related files allowing you to overwrite and add to the default config.

Example: Use ~/.localrc to store sensitive information such as credentials:

#!/usr/local/bin/zsh

# Set environment
export HOMEBREW_GITHUB_API_TOKEN='XXXXXXXX'
export DIGITAL_OCEAN_TOKEN='XXXXXXXX'

# Path additions
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.bin"

Vim Settings

The ~/.vimrc.local file will be created for you during installation. It's contents are up to you and will be sourced after content from ~/.vimrc allowing you to overwrite and add to the default config.

Prompt Theme

Shown with Solarized Dark color scheme and Powerline-patched Inconsolata 18pt (Unicode) / Powerline-patched DejaVu Sans Mono 14pt (Non-ASCII) in iTerm 2.

Additional Setup:

Install one of the patched fonts from Powerline or patch your own for the special characters. Optionally set DEFAULT_USER in ~/.zshenv to your username to hide the user on hostname info when you’re logged in as yourself on your local machine.

background_jobs

Variable	Default Value	Description
DOUBLEUP_VERBOSE_BG_JOBS	true	If there is more than one background job, this segment will show the number of jobs. Set this to false to turn this feature off.

status

This segment shows the return code of the last command.

Variable	Default Value	Description
DOUBLEUP_VERBOSE_STATUS	false	Set to true if you wish to show actual return code when the last command fails.

time

Variable	Default Value	Description
DOUBLEUP_TIME_FORMAT	'H:M:S'	ZSH time format to use in this segment.

As an example, if you wanted a reversed time format, you would use this:

# Reversed time format
DOUBLEUP_TIME_FORMAT='%D{%S:%M:%H}'

vcs

By default, the vcs segment will provide quite a bit of information. Further customization is provided via:

Variable	Default Value	Description
DOUBLEUP_VCS_HIDE_TAGS	true	Set to false to allow tags being displayed in the segment.
DOUBLEUP_VCS_SHOW_CHANGESET	false	Set to true to display the hash in the segment.
DOUBLEUP_VCS_INTERNAL_HASH_LENGTH	8	How many characters of the hash to display in the segment.

Components

The setup.sh script is a simple installer that will prompt for some info, check dependencies, set default preferences, install common apps, and so on.

Here's what happens during install:

• The repository is cloned into your home folder at ~/.dotfiles
  • If this isn't the first run, you'll be asked if you want to update the repository with an new commits
• Some additional directories will be created
• Files with user-provided content will be copied
  • Any file or directory name ending in .copy will get linked into the home directory
• Symlinks for Git, Shell, and Vim configurations will created in ~/
  • Any file or directory name ending in .symlink will get linked into the home directory
• Applications and command-line tools are installed for MacOS & Ubuntu
  • Python-powered Powerline will be installed
  • Vim plugins are installed
• Sane preferences are set for MacOS & Ubuntu
• Finally, zsh will be set as the default shell

Testing

MacOS

Unfortunately you won't be able to test your ~/.dotfiles natively on MacOS using Docker. Instead you'll need to build a VirtualBox machine or try it out in a separate user account on your existing system.

Linux

A great way to test changes to your ~/.dotfiles on Linux is by using Docker.

Build & Run a Test Container

This repository contains a simple configuration for a basic Ubuntu container. Assuming your host system has Docker & Docker Compose properly installed:

Build a Container

docker compose build

Run a Container

To test the online installation, create a self-removing container like so:

docker run -it --rm petemcw/dotfiles

To test a local dotfiles repository, mount as a volume in your self-removing container:

docker run -it --rm -v $PWD:/root/.dotfiles petemcw/dotfiles

Forks

If you fork this project for your own use, awesome! Just don't forget to update/customize the following:

• Links in this README.md
• Environment variables in the setup.sh script
• Login Window text preference

Thanks

So much inspiration and code has been gleaned from many talented people over the years, including but not limited to:

• Cătălin Mariș
• Ben Hilburn
• Ryan Bates
• Andrei Zmievski
• Zach Holman
• Nick Nisi
• Martin Grenfell

License

The code uses the MIT license.